Forging the Path: New Beginnings
by Lyrinneia
Summary: Written by Erin and Andrew. Lerina, orphaned as a child, has set out into the galaxy desperate to free herself of the grips of the hutts on Nar Shaddaa. The first stop in her new life is with that of An'kin Cassus and his clan of Mandalorians on the planet Gree. Little does she know her new ally, An'kin, has some skeletons in his closet concerning Lerina.
1. Chapter 1

**1**

 **Lerina Deeharc. Nar Shaddaa Slums. 2237 hours GST. 14 ABY.**

Today is her eighteenth Birthday. Today is also the thirteenth anniversary of her parent's death. Lerina Deeharc may have only been a girl of five years when they were killed by the damned Empire, but she had survived alone in the hell hold of the galaxy known as Nar Shaddaa. It may not have been the most glorious or honorable existence, but on this retched world not even the hutts in charge cared of such things.

Lerina sighed and whispered to herself, "thirteen years, huh?" Alone she sat in the darkness of the temporary shelter provided by the abandoned apartment she had holed herself in. She strained her ears to listen to the activity going on outside the damaged door that separated her from the miserable reality outside. Her mind, however, could not stray from the more disturbed reality of the gruesome scene that happened all those years ago.

She could remember running back home for the neighbor's rundown apartment. The door was busted fully open by the time she had arrived. Lerina had walked in only to find herself stepping in a small puddle of blood. Before her had stood an agent of death who stared down at her for a long moment. Her big eyes stared in kind. As the man walked past her, she spotted her father lying motionless on the floor. Her young mind had refused to accept the obvious and ignored the smell of blood and blaster fire. Slowly, the young girl walked over to the body. With a small, scared smile she said, "Daddy? Who was that man? What is the red stuff on the floor?" When he didn't answer her questions she stood there in defiance. "Daddy? Why are you ignoring me? Why are you sleeping?" She took her father's hand and tried to pull him off the ground, but he was too heavy for her small body. Tears had taken hold in her eyes. "Daddy?" Little Lerina sobbed. "Daddy, stop ignoring me! Wake up!" Upset, she had gone to the back rooms in search of her mother only to find her too lying in a pool of blood. "Mommy! Mommy, wake up! There is something wrong with daddy!" She cried to the now decaying body that was her mother. The tears had stopped after her mother did not answer her many pleas and cries. She had known somewhere in her mind that they were dead, but she didn't want to believe it. Now, if she was to survive, there was no choice but to understand.

From that point in her life to the present day, she had not shed a single tear. There was no point in crying. It would not stop the painful memories or bring her parents back. All Lerina figured she could do was learn the way of the streets. This little girl had been left alone on an unforgiving planet. No one but the Hutt Cartel would assist her, for a price of course, but even she knew to keep clear of them.

Although Nar Shaddaa was not the best place for a young girl to be on her own, it did help her in some ways. Lerina knew if she needed something she would have to work for it. She also knew a variety of martial skills in which she used to defend herself and make money through street matches. She was one of the current top fighter in these poorly organized matches. This gave her a way of which to scrape together some form of income. As a plus, the thugs left her alone for the most part.

But now the cartel was hunting her. They wanted a share in her profits by getting her to 'work' for them. Lerina's mind was made up – the Hutt's wants concerning her were never going to happen.

There was a sudden increase of activity in the area surrounding the abandoned apartment. The Cartel's men had begun to close in on her location as if they were hunting hounds. As she sat in the cold darkness, Lerina looked for solutions. Bringing a knife to a blaster fight was not the best idea, but a blaster she did not have. Only two options that would put an end to this problem came up. One, she could just give up and go work for the worms, but that wasn't going to happen. The second option was to get herself off of Nar Shaddaa and to somewhere out of the Cartel's reach. That option seemed much more appealing than the first, but it looked like it was a tall order. Still, the Lerina favored the idea. It was not like she would miss this dreadful world. Lerina hated the place, and would probably be happy to watch it go up in flame from orbit.

It was decided then. Her goal was to make it to the spaceport without being seen by the Hutt's lap hounds and stow away on a cargo ship. It was easier said than done, but at least she had a plan. There was no time to lose. Lerina climbed out of the window and made her way into the many shadows. It would be only a thirty minuet walk to get to her destination.

That time seemed to fly fast as she wandered through back alleys and into the space port. Eventually she found herself sneaking into one of the docking bays. Luck seemed to be on her side today for she didn't have to search very hard to find a cargo ship not headed to another part of this poor excuse of a planet.

The ship she decided to stow away on looked much more massive in size in comparison to the other ships she had seen. Off in a dark part of the room, the girl hid, studied the crew, and took note of what they were loading onto the ship. The cargo looked to be a variety of metal beams and boxes. These men were nowhere close to done with loading the ship. Lerina chose one of the crates close to her in the back of the bay. When she opened the lid, she found a variety of dried rations. She took her time to clear the box and properly dispose of the box's cargo where they would not be noticed. In part Lerina was thankful the box was full of food for she took some of it with her and hoped it would be enough to sustain the trip. Her eyes drifted about the area as she began to climb into the now mostly empty create. No one had spotted her. With a smile she closed herself in. All that was left to do now was to wait.

 **An'kin Cassus. Bleeding Skullz Compound Gree. 04:00 hours GST. 14 ABY**

It had been five years since the space battle over Gree. It had been a slow recovery. Slower than An'kin liked, but things were starting to shape up. An'kin lay on his cot meditating on the plans ahead. After the Battle of Kuat he had lost many men. All the ships he had taken with him were destroyed, and now this battle had taken 4 more. He was worried about how he would rebound from this. How would he attain more ships? The Zann Consortium was really quiet and that was where he had siphoned most of his fleet from.

"There's only one thing to do" He thought to himself. With that he got up and started to scribble a few drawings on a piece of wrinkled plexi-fiber. Then he shot up and quickly exited the room. Walking down the hall to the central meeting room he passed Wealthow, one of his father's clones he had trained.

Wealthow saw the haste in which An'kin seemed to carry himself as he walked down the hall. Quizzically, he walked back to catch up with An'kin.

"Is there a problem sir?" He asked nervously.

"Not today Wealthow, I have some big things to discuss with the militia." An'kin politely gestured. "Go to communications and send out a notification to everyone in the base to meet in the briefing room at 04:30 hours."

"Yes sir!" Wealthow saluted. He quickly made his way to the communications to act out An'kin's orders.

The message relayed through the entire compound. Other clones and Mandalorian troopers stared as An'kin continued his pace down the hall. They shot quizzical looks but shrugged it off and continued with their conversations until the meeting. An'kin entered the gargantuan cathedral that was the grand masterpiece of the compound. Here the Bleeding Skullz held all their important war meetings and conventions. An'kin stepped behind the pulpit on the stage of the massive arena. He started to go through his notes and examined the drawings he had done, making a few corrections here and there.

"Concentrated on something important their handsome?" Kli'nah whispered startling him out of his focused gaze. He turned around to meet her stare. No matter the situation or circumstance she could always distract his heart away from his other desires with those beautiful jewel-like eyes of hers.

"You shouldn't sneak up on me like that Cyar'ika." He said startled, yet lovingly. He wrapped his arm around her waist and guided her around to see what he had been working on.

"What is this… you… you're not serious about this are you?" She asked. She stood there looking over the plans he had formulated. "An'ika, I… I don't know what to say. This… this is brilliant! Why didn't we think of this sooner?"

"Isn't it Kli'nah? Our cause will be efficiently stocked and we will be able to do it all on our own. This will be the greatest thing to happen to our little outpost here." He said modestly, for he had acquired a fair amount of men and constructed grand architectural feats that comfortably accommodated his soldiers and ships. "It has to be the best idea I've had in a long time. We need to quit relying on others for our strength, but make it ourselves!"

"This is great An'ika, I have some news for you too." Kli'nah muttered. She stepped back from him and looked him in the eye. She held out and grasped his hand and smiled. Her face lit up like a hyperdrive.

"What is it, love?" An'kin smiled, anxious to hear what she had to say.

The slam of the wide arena doors broke the tension between them just as she was about to speak. A horde of Mandalorian soldiers flooded the room and started to take their seats in the vast auditorium. An'kin looked down at his data-screen on his wrist.

"Shoot honey, hold that thought!" An'kin said as he turned around to face his army. Kli'nah slunked back behind An'kin, patient as a narglatch, but her smile faded into a disappointed frown.

"Today is a turning point in our organization men!" An'kin started to give his speech. "As you know, our casualties have been substantial in the battle overhead and the battle at Kuat. We have no reliable source to gain more ships and supplies save for one!" An'kin glanced over to Kli'nah who was standing beside him now and shot a clever smirk at her. She faked an affirming smile.

"As of this meeting I am letting you all know that I am putting forth an order that will add to our strength and numbers without relying on others and relying on stolen equipment. Men, we are going to build our own ship making factories. I know with the numbers we have now that we have enough man-power to organize an effort of this magnitude. I will also be appointing high ranking members of our order to oversee the constructions and also to hire outside resources such as mineral reservoirs. We will also establish base supply lines to our other worlds we control."

As An'kin continued his speech Kli'nah found herself hanging on to every word. She watched as An'kin gave his powerful and encouraging speech. Then a thought flashed in front of her mind. That thought. She couldn't hold it in. She was too excited to just keep it bottled up.

"Hurry up and finish the speech An'kin, please hurry…" She thought to herself anxiously. She started to break out in a sweat and found herself losing her composure. She didn't want to interrupt his speech but the news she had for him was overpowering.

An'kin paused to take a breath, than…

"I'm pregnant!" Kli'nah exploded. She then stood there with a blank look on her face. She felt like all the blood was draining from her body. She was so shocked at herself that she would act so rashly like that.

An'kin had his mouth open to continue in his speech but stopped. With mouth still a gape, he slowly turned around with a shocked and puzzled look masking his once arrogant and proud complexion. The crowd was silent for a few moments not knowing what to do.

An'kin blinked his eyes a few times still staring at her.

"You're… you're preg...pregnant?" He stuttered, not believing the words that were coming out of his mouth.

Kli'nah regained her composure and with tears streaming down her cheeks answered, "Yes An'ika." She smiled wide, half sobbing. An'kin just stood there with a stunned look on his face. The crowd erupted in joyous cheer and applause.


	2. Chapter 2

2

 **Lerina** **Deeharc. Warship Construction Sight, Gree. 1347 GST. 14ABY.**

It had been a long journey. Lerina had run out of food the day before, but thankfully the ship had finally landed. She could hear workers unloading the cargo one by one. They sounded far enough away. Even so, now was not the time to be careless. She would need to be silent and agile if she wished to leave the ship without any problems.

Lerina cracked the lid of the crate just enough to see what was going on but not enough for the workers to notice the lid was ajar. No one was around. She slipped out of the crate and closed the lid. Her eyes darted around the room as she crouched behind the box she arrived in. She needed to get a move on. With silent steps she moved forward and took cover. For a long moment she paused.

These people worked much faster than Lerina expected. In just a matter of time she would be surrounded. Lerina watched with suspense as the crew worked diligently. She needed options.

"Hey! You there!" called an unfamiliar voice behind her.

Her heart nearly stopped. She turned her head to the shout only to discover a man nearly on top of her position. There was no point in hiding now. The alert had begun to spread to all the crew members.

Lerina dashed towards the exit. Thankfully the man who sounded the alarm was a bit slower than her. Even so, there were workers coming at her from all sides. Only about five men stood between her and the exit, not counting the rest of the hoard that came at her.

The first man, who looked strong and tall, reached to grab her as she tried to pass by. Lerina dropped to her knees and slid to dodge. She was thankful for her small build for he was not able to even touch her. The one thing she liked about being small was she could easily change direction if needed.

The second man was a bit older than the first, but was more muscular. Not to worry, she would get past him. As she continued to slid, she rose to her feet and dodged his attempt at a grab.

Lerina picked up speed and dropped herself to the deck as quick as she did the first time. She flew underneath the third man and rose back up to run. Out of nowhere, one of the workers tackled her. She noticed the man wore a helmet. If she could strike his face, there was still a chance for her to escape. Her hands grabbed the helmet tightly and pulled it off.

By the time they hit the ground, Lerina was sure to acquire the advantage of the mount. Without his helmet, the man's face was vulnerable to her fists. The man, however, was smart enough to throw her off of him.

She landed on her back with a loud _thud._ The large man, however, had gotten to his feet and pinned her under the weight of his foot. Her heart pounded as adrenaline rushed through her blood. With all her strength, Lerina shoved the man's foot off of her, created some distance, kicked his unprotected shin, and got back up to her feet.

The man began to wobble on his newly injured leg but went for the knockout punch anyways. When he swung, time seemed to slow down. She brought her arm up to block her face. When Lerina's arm finished its movement into place, a blaster flew across the scene and hit the man in the face. The blow caused him to miss and finally tumble to the ground.

She stood in her defensive stance, unmoving in shock. Lerina wondered where the weapon had come from and pondered how it moved to save her skin from a knockout punch. By the time it took her to come to her senses, she was already surrounded with the crew's weaponry trained on her. They watched her with caution and curiosity.

Lerina dropped her arms and stood in a normal, non-aggressive stance. The girl observed the crowd of workers. "I know when I am beaten," She said as she raised her hands slowly above her head in surrender. One of the men walked over to her and another to the man whose shin she guessed she had broken. Binds were placed tightly and painfully around her wrists.

From the crowd emerged a slightly taller than average man in black and blue heavy armor. The workers knew him as Kotra. "Well, now," he began. "What do we have here? A stowaway? A Jedi? Spy, perhaps?" Kotra questioned through his helmet in a calm yet surprised tone.

The girl only shot him a silent, angry glare.

"Take her to the detention center," He commanded in a soft yet firm command voice. "I need to report our little find to my father."

As ordered, two warriors stood on her flanks and began to escort her away to the detention center.

At least it was not Nar Shaddaa. Lerina sent a sly smirk to Kotra. "Tell the Captain I said thanks for the lift," she teased.

Her two escorts lead her to one of the many small cells on the compound and locked her in. She wondered over to the far corner and sat on the cold floor. "He forgot to take the cuffs off me," she sighed quietly to herself. Lerina silently cursed herself for freezing in combat. If she didn't freeze would she have been able to get away? I did not really matter now; she was locked in a cell. What did matter was what they were going to do to her.

The warden walk in a few times asking the same questions multiple times. He poked for information. Over and over he asked, "Are you a Jedi?" and "Who are you?"

To his first question she answered, "No," and to his second all she said was "I'm just a lil' girl from Nar Shaddaa that stowed away on your convoy." The second time he asked those questions Lerina told him, "I just told you. Why would you ask again?" The third time he asked she just sighed with an annoyed look on her face. The fourth time she just straight up ignored him.

Lerina began to wonder how long she would have to endure this torture.

 **An'kin Cassus. Planet: Gree. 2:00 GST Warship Construction Site.**

"Keep that crane steady!" An'kin yelled at one of the construction crews. The factory was coming along nicely and so far everything was on schedule. He didn't care for the tediousness of overseeing the construction though. Since Kli'nah was starting to have morning sicknesses he had to fill in for her until the next shift started.

"The Ion Reactor station is going here, and the hull maintenance station should be off over here." He explained to a fellow crew member. He constantly looked over the plans he had drawn up to make sure things were set in the proper order. He knew that if he didn't then his mind, left unattended, would start changing layouts and then things could get confused. The last thing he wanted was a mistake in the construction due to his fast paced mind constantly changing ideas on him. Usually things worked out the best the first time, and there was no need for something like that to happen especially with this project.

Construction continued. It seemed like any other day just busy with work and not many accidents happen thankfully. He continued to oversee the site for the next several hours. One crew member got burned with a plasma torch, but that was about the extent of the day's excitement so far, and it was just fine to him. He didn't like hiccups or unexpected surprises, and this project had already put him under considerable strain.

" _Buir_!" Kotra called as he walked up from the landing zone. An'kin turned around to meet him. He had his full _beskar'gam_ on, minus his helmet, and seemed to have a nervous expression painted on his face. That wasn't normal An'kin thought. Kotra normally didn't show much emotion.

 _Perhaps something is out of the ordinary, and he is worried about how I will take it?_ An'kin thought to himself. In any case he didn't like the look Kotra was giving him, and he could tell something was up that he wasn't going to like.

"What is it, Kotra?" An'kin questioned with a mark of irritation.

Noting his father's tone Kotra answered, "Well _Buir_ , there seems to be a problem with the latest supply freighter's arrival." He watched as his father's face turned from a simple irritated look into the start of an angry fit of rage.

"If there is something wrong with the supply shipment you may want to come back later and tell me about it. Now's not a good time."

"Well, there isn't anything wrong with the shipment itself exactly. The ship seems to have picked up… some extra cargo." Kotra said sort of nervous. Many things didn't worry Kotra, but his father's motives and thoughts were never obvious to him which made him wary of how he presented information that might have pushed him over the edge of calm into a state of rage.

"Quit sugar-coating the situation, and just tell me what is the matter, _Ad'ika._ I don't have time for this." An'kin answered sternly.

"Sorry, An'kin, well, it seems they picked up a stowaway on Nar Shaddaa."

 _A stowaway?_ An'kin thought. "Oh boy this is rich…" He gave Kotra an affirming nod. "Where is this stowaway now, Kotra?"

"We moved her to the Detention Center. We wanted to make sure you were able to question her. She could be a spy."

"Kotra, I have confidence in your wisdom, but what kind of spy would know a thing about us?" Kotra seemed unnerved which made An'kin curious. What could be so bad about this stowaway? An'kin continued to place Kotra in charge of overseeing construction until he had time to "question" this stowaway of theirs.

An'kin headed to the Detention Center of the compound anxious to meet the stowaway. Secretly he was glad there was something that called his attention other than overseeing the construction. Building structures and directing constructions was not his forte and he just as soon clean the compound from top to bottom than oversee the factory all day.

When he reached the Detention Center, the warden greeted him with a confident smile. The warden's name was Ty'din Kli, a newcomer An'kin had come across on Corellia a few weeks back, but a tough as nails _Mando'ad_ that quickly earned his respect enough to be given his position.

"Welcome to my humble prison ward, Commander." He greeted with a prideful tone. "And what brings you here this afternoon sir?"

"Heard we have a stowaway from the last shipment. Came to see what the problem is."

"Ah, that little _sheila_. Luck with that one, sir, she's a feisty _shabuir_. She had the nerve to challenge Nitro on her way in. Got his shin good!" He laughed. "Suffice to say he's gunna be the talk of the caf all week! Embarrassed the _haran_ out of him."

"I don't get pushed around by little girls, but I will take your advice into consideration." An'kin joked back.

"She's in cell block 23-Y. Have her tied up for safety." He pulled An'kin over to the side out of hearing range of the other guards. "We think she's a Jedi. She claims not to be, but she used some sort of Force thing on Nitro." He continued to tell An'kin about how Nitro tried to force her into the compound from the landing bay and one of the rifles leaned against the outside wall suddenly flew up and hit him in the head. Then she preceded to kick him in the shin.

"A Jedi huh? This should be interesting." An'kin replied. He thought to himself, _This must be why Kotra was nervous about telling me._ He gave Ty'din his gratitude for the warning and proceeded to cell block 23-Y. As he got to the cell a guard was sitting by the door but suddenly shot up to attention as he saw An'kin walk up.

"Right inside, Sir! She's hard to handle, that one. Best be careful, Sir." He said confidently but with a hint of nervousness.

"That'll be fine, Cadet, let me in to see the prisoner please." An'kin ordered. The guard obeyed and opened the door to the stowaway's cell. An'kin walked in and almost immediately felt like a heavier presence was in the room. He quickly tried to shake off the ominous feeling. It was like something was trying to get inside his head, but he had confronted plenty of Jedi before, and he knew their tricks.


	3. Chapter 3

3

 **Lerina** **Deeharc. Warship Construction Sight, Gree. 1405 GST. 14ABY.**

When the warden finally left, it wasn't long before some nosey worker walked in. Except this one was different, she noted.

This man carried a command presence about him. His heavy armor was black and white accompanied with a blue cape. She could not pin point why, but his presence pissed her off. There was something about him, but as far as she remembered this man had not done anything to her. Yet, this man triggered feelings that made Lerina want to put her fist through his helmet.

The man's T-visor was aimed towards her face, and there is where she guessed he was looking.

Lerina shot him a hateful glare, "What are you going to do with me?" She asked with a defiant and stubborn tone.

"Well for right now, I just want to ask you a few questions. I promise you, I am not going to hurt you," He answered her.

Lerina just laughed then turned her gaze to the shackles around her wrists. If this man was going to hurt or interrogate her, the binds would make is considerably difficult for her to fight back.

"Here, I'll show you I don't mean to harm you." The man walked over and snapped off the shackles with a startling strength. If he could do that with his bare hands, there was left the question of what else he could do. "Now," He continued. "Let's start from the beginning. What is your name?"

"What's the difference to you?" Lerina answered back defiantly.

"I see," He said. "Just trying to get to know you a little more is all. Now tell me, where are you from? Did you stow away from Nar Shaddaa?"

Lerina had gotten into her mind to be stubborn. She didn't want to answer her capture's questions. Yet, what was the harm in giving them a little information? She wasn't a spy after all and Lerina was probably just making it worse on herself by being stubborn. Just what information did she want to feed him? If Lerina could see his face she would be able to read his reactions.

The man took a seat and waited for her reply.

She decided to finally answer him under one condition. "I'll answer your questions when you wake that bucket off your skull," She told him.

Hesitantly, he reached up and removed his helmet. There was a slight hiss of air being released. "There," He said. "Is that better?"

Lerina's gaze was pulled to the helmet. There was something familiar about it, but she couldn't pin point what. It pulled at something deep insider her that she could not understand. For some reason it tugged at her soul, but she couldn't reach the point of it all. They all looked like mercenaries to her but this one… This one seemed different somehow. With a sigh she finally began to speak, "My name is Lerina. I'm from Nar Shaddaa."

"Alright then, how hard was that?" The man slowly got up and walked across the cell to sit next to her.

She scooted away not giving him eye contact. Instead, Lerina studied him out of the corner of her eye.

"Why did you stow away?" He asked. "Do you have a family?"

Lerina did not answer but continued to listen to the tone of his voice, study his body language and facial expressions. It was obvious something was really bothering him. Was it obvious that something was pulling at her as well?

"Your parents," He asked her, "They were killed years ago, weren't they? By a bounty hunter?"

She looked into his eyes with surprise and was too stunned to say much. She could feel her long buried sadness and anger start to boil over to the surface like lava. How did he know her parents were dead? How did he know their fate? "How… how did you know that?" Her eyes began to tear up and slowly slipped from her eyes and down her cheeks. Her tears of anger and confusion were warm.

The man's face turned into a frown. He looked lost in thought.

 _Just what was he thinking about? How did he know? Who is this man?_ She stared at him diligently waiting for him to come back to his senses.

The man stood, stepped toward the door, then look back into her eyes. His eyes overflowed with regret. "You're safe here." He said in a quiet voice, "Whatever you need just ask and I'll have it sent for you." As he walked out, she saw the guard snap to attention.

Then the door shut once again. She was alone with her thoughts for a moment more. "When he comes back," she mumbled as the tears slipped down her cheeks, "I will have some questions for him." Lerina wiped her face with her dirty sleeve and her tears finally stopped their merciless flow.

 **An'kin Cassus. Planet: Gree. 1410 GST Warship Construction Site.**

As An'kin walked out, the guard, startled, jumped back and snapped at attention.

"Have this girl given her own room and make sure some of the servants give her whatever she desires. As of now she is a respected guest. Do I make myself clear?" An'kin ordered the guard.

"Sir, yes, Sir!" He obeyed.

An'kin left the compound and went back to oversee the construction. He knew this little situation was not over, however. He would have to face her sometime. He would have to tell her the truth. She needed to know. He was the one who had killed her parents. He tried to brush aside all the regrets and feelings these painful memories brought, but they wouldn't let up. This was not something he needed right now. But, it was something he needed to have closure on, and he was sure she needed it too.

 **Lerina** **Deeharc** **. Planet: Gree. 1800 hours GST. Bleeding Skullz Compound. 14ABY.**

Lerina sat alone in her cell for some time. Not that it mattered, but she lost track of how much time had passed by since the men threw her in the confined room. Curled up in a corner, Lerina pondered to herself. Three things mattered more than time. _Who was that man? How did he know about the fate of her parents? How was she able to force a firearm to fly across the room?_ The last question bothered her the most. She had already guessed the man was one of their leaders and it wasn't exactly rare for a child to be made an orphan on Nar Shaddaa. What was rare was for someone to make a blaster hit someone else in the head without touching it. Was it even her who made it fly?

It wasn't the first time something flew across the room to save her hide. The last time it happened, it occurred just days before she left Nar Shaddaa. They had called her a Jedi then too; however, she had denied as she believed someone had simply thrown that object to help her. Now she wondered if it was her all along. What if they were right? What if she had the same powers as the Jedi? Impossible, she wasn't a Jedi, and even if she was Lerina wouldn't purposely use her powers openly. There were still many people who hated force users, and anyone associated with them. Using her powers would only put her in more danger off of the New Republic aligned worlds.

She sat there for a few minutes and let the "what ifs" linger in her mind a little longer. A voice called at her. She snapped out of her passive state and looked up. It was the warden. How long was she lost in her mind? She hadn't even noticed the warden walk in. Lerina moved to her feet and looked at the warden with a suspicious glare.

"Come to ask me the same questions again?" The girl teased.

"No. I've come to tell you it's your lucky day. I've been given orders to show you to your new room." He sighed.

"Is it smaller than this one or is it a glorified cell?" She poked.

"Neither." The man took a deep breath. "I swear I wonder why he would make you an honored guest."

"Honored guest?" Lerina questioned in a quiet voice. "What's the catch?"

"Catch? I was not informed of that." He told her matter of fact-ly.

"There is always a catch." She told him.

The warden shrugged. He led her down a maze of passageways and she wondered if he knew where he was going. Eventually they arrived at her new room in the guest quarters. There was a young man standing outside of her new room. The warden left her with him.

Lerina smiled. "So are you my guard?"

The man looked at her behind his helmet. Lerina couldn't tell if he was rolling his eyes.

"I'm just here to answer any questions you may have then I'll be on my way." He sighed.

Lerina could tell he hated being sent on such a menial task. "Just one," she replied. "What's the catch?"

"The catch?" he questioned her.

"Yes the ca…" Lerina sighed. "Oh never mind," she finally gave up. With that she stepped into the room. It was at least three times bigger than her cell back in the detention center.

Lerina walked over to the window and peeked outside. From her room she could see the construction of some structure, however as it was still in its skeleton looking stage. She could not even begin to guess what purpose it was going to serve.

She sat on the bed. To her it was very soft, but in reality it was actually very firm. Why would that man make her an honorary guest? Something was very off and she did not need supernatural senses to realize it. This question poked at her for hours until she finally gave up on guessing. Lerina decided she might as well milk this situation while she can and enjoy herself. Why not? She was obviously a guest; the workers wouldn't really bother her now if she's found outside her room. Or so she hoped.


	4. Chapter 4

**4**

 **An'kin Cassus. Planet: Gree. 14:32 GST. Bleeding Skullz Private Quarters. 14ABY.**

An'kin sat on the edge of his bed. With his head buried in hands, he sat there broken. It was a calm day. Nothing out of the usual was happening. The stowaway that had arrived a few days prior was behaving well and wasn't causing trouble. No, there was something else invading his thoughts today. Something much more sorrowful.

He slowly got up and walked outside to check on things. He was just kidding himself though. He was only trying to find something to distract him from his thoughts. Construction was going along smoothly, the young stowaway, Lerina, wasn't causing trouble and was being taken care of, and Kli'nah was feeling well today considering her morning sickness.

"Kli'nah!" He thought to himself. "I wonder how she is taking this. And with another baby on the way… I hope she is alright. I should go check on her." He saw her earlier that day but only in the morning. After her morning sickness she had gone out to oversee some of the construction. It seemed as though that's all she did nowadays. With a heavy heart he searched for her. He finally spotted her talking to a crew member near the factory-in-progress. He slowly made his way to her side.

"How are things going?" He tried to say in a confident tone, but she could sense that he wasn't his usual self.

"They are alright I suppose." She answered. "I have a feeling something is bothering you though. Is it because it's the anniversary?"

He paused. "The anniversary..." He repeated in his head. It had been ten years. And time still hadn't healed the wound. He could tell Kli'nah was still grieving but it was different for him, much different. "Ten years ago." He thought. "I can't believe it's been ten years."

"Yea…" He finally replied lowly.

"It's ok An'ika." She said, "I know it's tough. I miss her too."

He gave a nod in agreement. Ten years ago their only daughter, Rusaan, was killed in a horrible Blackwing accident. After ten years, it wasn't just the death that bothered him, but it was also the fact that the last time he saw her before she died he had beat her senseless. She had disobeyed his orders about tracking shipments to the 2nd Death Star. None of that mattered now. He found it hard to come to terms with his grief and the guilt overwhelmed him, knowing that the last thing he did was beat her.

Kli'nah watched as he left the construction site with his head slouched over. The whole compound seemed to know that there was something wrong with him. Nobody dared confront him about it however. They all knew what day it was, and they knew better to disturb him.

An'kin walked back to his private quarters and sat on his bed again. He didn't cry on the outside, but inside his heart cried out for vengeance though there was none to have. The only vengeance that could have been was already taken when he had destroyed a Black Wing plant on Raxus Prime all those years ago. And now, with the Empire slowly declining, the only thing left was restoring the Mandalorians to their former glory, his main objective. He slowly lifted his head and looked over to a holo of Rusaan posing in her newly acquired navy uniform. She was so proud and excited to be in the Imperial navy, he remembered. The picture brought back the memory of the day it had happened. The day he had gotten the call.

 **Deep Space. 12:37 GST. Imperial Star Destroyer Raven Wing. Rusaan Cassus. 4 ABY.**

"This has to be the most boring patrol yet." Rusaan thought to herself. The deck of her Star Destroyer laid out in front of her. The crew was flipping away at switches and buttons keeping the ship in line and on course. She couldn't help but wonder why the Empire had her fleet patrolling this section of wild space. "What could possibly be out here?" She pondered.

"Admiral Cassus, ma'am?" The captain had come up to the bridge with a nervous look plastered across his face.

"What is it captain?" She replied curiously. Things seemed quiet. What could possibly be wrong?

"Command sent us new orders."

"Well? What are they? What's with the fear smeared across your face?" She tugged out the information he withheld.

"Sorry ma'am, it's just that. They have report of a distress signal coming from a Star Destroyer somewhere in our sector. They have ordered us to investigate." The shaky tone in which he said it set Rusaan off. "What is it he isn't telling me?" She thought.

"Distress signal? If it's in our sector then why didn't we pick it up ourselves?" She asked with contempt.

"Orders are from the The Grand Moff himself…" he forced out with the same distracted tone.

A surprised expression swept across her face. "Grand Moff?" She thought, "This was different for sure."

"Ok." She replied, "Send an order for the remainder of the fleet to stay on course we will check out this 'distress signal' out for ourselves."

"Yes, Admiral!" The captain obeyed, but she could tell something was up with him.

Rusaan didn't like this. The whole thing wreaked of trouble. "I smell a set up… or a trap." She thought. But, obeying orders, she headed out to wild space in search of this Star Destroyer. Thoughts of mutiny kept seeping into her mind. What if they found out she had something to do with the construction delays on the Death Star? What if they found out she was a double agent for the Bleeding Skullz? She kept repressing these thoughts, but they always came back the closer to the signal they got. The crew seemed to be on edge. All the staff gave her little eye contact. As they closed in on the coordinates she could feel their nervous glances they shot at her. She continued to stand there looking out into hyperspace with a stern resolve. She wouldn't let her thoughts be shown on her face. Perhaps her demeanor would instill fear of her in her crew. The Command Deck was silent.

"Admiral, we are coming in range of the origin of the signal." The Captain finally informed. The ship came out of hyperspace, and the Destroyer they were sent to investigate zoomed into full view of the Command Deck. There were no other ships around it; just the Star Destroyer. She sensed something was very wrong. There were no signs of a battle. There was no debris floating anywhere, and the Destroyer sending out the signal seemed intact. "Odd…" She thought, "We are here and still there is no distress signal coming from the Destroyer…"

"Alright Captain, nice and slow." She commanded. They brought their ship closer to the derelict and sent out a comm message.

"This is Admiral Cassus of the 157th Imperial Navy Fleet. Do you read?" She sent over comm channel. Nothing but static came back from the Star Destroyer. She could have sworn she heard a faint scream in the midst of the static but no one else seemed to respond to it.

"This is Admiral Cassus of the 157th Imperial Navy Fleet. Do you copy?" She tried again. Still static and what seemed to be garbling sounds. For once a sense of concern swept over her. And fear? She didn't want to admit it, but a certain fear was also coming over her. She just hoped that this was just a test or some sort of drill.

"Ok then." She addressed the Command Deck, "Gather twenty troopers to meet me at the boarding ramp. Dock with the destroyer and send me word when its safe to board."

The crew hesitated and stared at her with quivering eyes. That definitely told her that this wasn't a drill and that something was really wrong here. Her crew on the bridge never questioned her orders. But, as soon as they had hesitated they were forwarding her orders and moving the ship to docking range. She looked over them, studying them with scrutiny, looking for any signs of what might be going on. After a minute she headed to the turbo-lift to go down to the boarding ramp. As she walked across the bridge, she could feel her crew member's fearful stares. As she stepped inside the elevator, she hoped for the sake of all humanity that she wasn't about to make a huge mistake.

When she got down to the boarding ramp the battalion of Stormtroopers she had requested met her gaze. She couldn't see their faces but she could feel their terrorized stares. None of them ever said a word. The signal that the ship had docked blared over the intercom, and the boarding ramp door opened. She could feel a heavy atmosphere swirl around her once the door opened, and a horrid stench flooded the docking hatch. Before the group could even step a foot into the Destroyer they were coughing and choking on the gut wrenching odor that enveloped the airlock. Quickly Rusaan strapped on a rebreather, and the troopers switched on their helmet filters. Slowly the smell deluded, and they could start their expedition inside. Slowly they made their way into the derelict Destroyer.

Rusaan had gotten over all the previous questions that were swirling in her head, and the only thing she could think about was what had happened here. Where was the crew? It didn't take long for her to get some questions answered. They made their way down a hall towards a medical wing. The Destroyer seemed abandoned and empty. Not a sound could be heard through the entire ship. It was eerily quiet, and it unnerved her. Here and there were scratches, streaks of blood, and what looked like some kind of unidentifiable goo smeared across the floor, ceiling, and walls. As the small group of Rusaan and twenty Stormtroopers walked into what used to be the medical wing, the smell of decaying and rotten flesh was so potent that it seeped through their filters. All over the floor there were bits and pieces what used to be Stormtroopers. Busted helmets with flesh hanging out of them, ripped arms and legs, and torn apart and mangled doctors were scattered across the medbay. Damaged medical droids were hanging from the ceiling with guts and mucus dripping off of them. Rusaan was stunned just staring at the carnage and almost passed out from the fumes, but she quickly regained her composure.

Scanning the room for anything that could tell her what happened, she saw movement in the corner of the room.

"Umm, Tav, could you come over here!?" She frantically called over to one of the Stormtroopers searching the room. She never looked away from where she thought she saw the movement. Tav had came quickly, obviously wanting to be close to someone in this pit of madness.

"What is it Admiral?" He asked nervously.

"Look...look over there? Do you…. see that?" She choked out. What ever she saw earlier was making a low gurgling noise and low fluid movements across the back wall. They followed the movement as it headed over to one of the other Stormtroopers checking another part of the room. Then, what Rusaan saw next almost terrified her more than anything she had ever witnessed before. She and Tav watched in horror as the shadow leaped up in the air and came down hard on the unsuspecting Stormtrooper ripping and gnashing at him. The horrible creature devoured him as he screamed in terror. The other Stormtroopers that had noticed it started firing at the creature desperately trying to save their comrade, but it was too late. The creature had ripped him apart and was eating at him even as the others were filling it with plasma. Finally the creature slumped over lifeless. Rusaan was about to slowly step over to find out what it was that had attacked the poor trooper, but then one of the others cried out.

"Look!"

She whipped her head around in the direction he was pointing and she saw low glowing yellow eyes staring at her and the troopers. There seemed like a hundred pairs of dead yellow eyes glaring at them with merciless hunger. Quickly, without a thought she and the rest of the troopers shot out of the room sealing the door behind them.

Out of breath, Rusaan gasped, "What in haran was that!?"

The other troopers just stood there gasping for breath. One was crouched on his knees crying. He must have been the one closest to the victimized trooper. She sat there staring blankly at the ground shaking. What just happened? This isn't happening is it? What in the haran just shab'la happened? These thoughts just cycled over and over in her head. One of the troopers stood up, and looked like he was about to shake out of his armor.

"I'm… I'm getting the shab out… out of here!" he shouted.

Rusaan tried to stop him, but he just pushed past her and ran down the hall towards the boarding ramp. Another trooper took off his helmet gasping for breath. Rusaan knelt down beside him.

"Are you okay?" She asked panicked. The trooper was choking and gasping for air. He just stared into her eyes as he was choking and started to throw up blood. He reached for her convulsing, and choked out the word "help". She watched terrified as his eyes slowly turned a milky yellow and his skin crawled like there was some sort of parasite underneath it. She stepped back and ordered the others to step back as well. They didn't hesitate, in fact, most had already been five feet behind her. The gagging trooper slowly stopped choking and stood up with a dead blank look on his face. He stared up at the ceiling with blood and drool dripping down his chin from his mouth.

Rusaan stuttered out, "Are… are you okay?" But she knew he wasn't. Suddenly the trooper lunged at her with desperate hunger in his pale yellow eyes. She screamed and drove her vibroblade through his stomach but the trooper, or what used to be the trooper, kept clawing and gnashing at her with intense ferocity. She looked around, and the other troopers had deserted her. She felt so helpless and scared but she wasn't going to go out like this. She determinedly pushed the zombie-like creature back and whipped out her blaster and pumped the former trooper full of plasma bolts until it finally slumped down motionless on the floor.

She looked around frantically to see if any of the other troopers were still around.

"Hello? Guys? You cowards! Where are you? I order you to come back!" She screamed out. There was no answer. The hall way was silent again. She didn't know what to do. The shock was still enveloping her, and the slow flickering of the ship's lights put her into a trauma induced trance. Suddenly she heard crashing and thudding noises emanating from the vents above the ceiling that snapped her out of her delirious focus. The sounds traveled from down the hall towards her position with gargling and screeching. She stood stone-cold as the noises traveled past her and continued down the hall when suddenly the ceiling fell out with a loud crash. Rusaan watched horrified as a horde of mangled and unidentifiable stormtroopers and crew members flooded out of the air vent onto the cold durasteel floor of the hall. When they finally got organized, if you could even call it that, they spied Rusaan standing there dumbstruck with terror, and quickly clamored towards her clawing and gnashing at each other in a kind of competition to get to her.

Rusaan screamed and sprinted for the boarding ramp. She wasn't staying one more minute in this death trap and no longer cared what made the crew turn into brain-dead, fleshing eating, zombie-like monsters. As she was running back down the hall a horrid sight brought her to a sudden stop. In her way was one of those monsters devouring one of the troopers that was with her. In the light of the hall she could see in vivid detail the carnage the creature created as it ripped at the trooper. It was more than she could handle, and she had seen her fair share of war injuries and mutilations. She could tell by the serial number on the chest plate that it was Tav. The creature looked up at her with a part of Tav's arm hanging out of its mouth. Rusaan stood there, eyes wide, just staring at the monster quivering in total fear. The creature then dropped the arm and jumped at her. She screamed as she quickly dodged the attack and instinctually fired a few shots at the animal's direction as she continued to run down the hall. The screams of the creatures chasing her grew fainter and fainter as she neared the boarding ramp.

"Finally!" She gasped as she reached the docking hatch. Quickly she scrambled up the ramp back into her Star Destroyer sealing the blast door behind her. She slumped down leaning against the door and just started sobbing. Then, a loud bang bellowed against the bulkhead door, and she shot up and jumped away. Another bang and another, the creatures were trying relentlessly to get through the door. She stepped back and started to run back to the turbo-lift. On her way, she passed a crew lounge. She could see blood splatter on the walls and scratches on the glass in the door. Suddenly a Stormtrooper without his helmet slammed against the door from the inside coughing and gagging. Then another one hobbled over to him from behind and bit at his neck. The two of them fell down behind the door where Rusaan couldn't see, but she could still hear choked screams and gargled screeches as, undoubtedly, the other trooper was annihilating his comrade.

Pushed far enough from all the gore and terror, Rusaan threw up out of disgust and fear. Quickly though, she regained what little composure she still had and rushed to the turbo-lift.

"I can't take much more of this! This is insanity!" She said aloud. She stumbled into the elevator as soon as the door opened. No one was inside, but there was mucus and blood smeared all over the car. She dare not take her rebreather off because she knew that the smell would be overwhelming. The turbo-lift continued to shoot up to the Bridge. As it passed floor after floor she saw glimpses of patrols shooting at the creatures, and she heard bangs as some of them slammed against turbo-lift doors as she went up. Suddenly the car came to a stop a few floors early of the Command Deck.

"No.." She said with a horrified gasp. The door slowly opened and she readied her blaster. The hall ahead of her was silent. Not even a peep could be heard. The sound of echoing screeches, screams, and blaster shots rang through the ship but nothing on this level. Thankful, she closed the door and continued to the Bridge.

On the way up she thought to herself, "How did they get on my ship? This whole place is a war zone now and we are losing! It must be some sort of disease or bioweapon! There is no other explanation!" She continued to think over how the trooper in the derelict had just started coughing up blood and slowly turned into one of those creatures. She had heard rumors of Imperial Bioweapon plans, but she had no idea about anything like this. "Something must have happened." She thought, "that made the entire Star Destroyer go mad!" Well she wasn't going to stick around to find out. She just wanted to get out of here as fast as she could.

When she reached the bridge it was abandoned. Nobody was at their posts. Curious she raced over to the command console and searched for shuttle departures. The console confirmed that the entire Command Deck crew had left on shuttles stationed in the main hanger shortly after she boarded the derelict Destroyer.

"Those di'kut'la shabuire!" She said under her breath, "They knew this was going to happen!"

Then suddenly an emergency light started flashing on the console. She checked the incoming message.

"Haran…" She gasped. The message was a warning that the derelict had somehow punched in hyperspace coordinates to Dathomir. Questions flooded her head once again: How could they program the hyperdrive? Why Dathomir? But they quickly passed, and she instinctually started to punch in the same hyperspace coordinates to Dathomir. She knew that if she hadn't then the jump would rip apart both Destroyers killing her and anybody else who may have survived. She had to save as much of her men as possible. Even if this was an attempt to get rid of her she had close friends and Bleeding Skullz members aboard this ship. She sat down in front of the Command Deck overlooking the outside of the Star Destroyer and into space. She closed her eyes, staying calm and focused, and waited for the jump.

She was jerked from her trance as the two Destroyers simultaneously jumped into hyperspace. A blaring warning alarm sounded on the command console again. She rushed up and looked over the alarm.

"This is never going to get better is it?" She said hopeless as she read the warning: Coordinates too close to system! Reroute Coordinates!

She knew she couldn't. The other destroyer wouldn't. If those mindless creatures had somehow set the coordinates than they wouldn't know how to change them. She just stood back.

"What am I going to do?" She said to herself. There was nothing she could do. With the speed they were coming in at and the coordinates of the arrival the Destroyers would be ripped apart within seconds as soon as they came out of hyperspace. No messages would get through until they were out of hyperspace, no distress signals, nothing. She walked up to the Command Deck's large observation window and looked into the warped lights flashing by as she raced towards her impending death. A thought flashed through her mind.

"What's the use? It's not going to go through anyway…" She thought to herself.

Hopelessly she walked back over to the Command Console and sent a distress signal to the only person she knew she could trust. Her mentor and closest friend to her father, Pharsa Nets. If in light of some miracle he received her message he would be able to come to her rescue. "If I survive…" She thought.

Then, as fast as she sent the message the two ships came out of hyperspace right in the middle of Dathomir's atmosphere. Her eyes widened in horror as she watched her ship and the other ship tear apart as they screamed through the planet's atmosphere. Large segments of durasteel hull tore off the ships and crashed into other parts of the ships ripping them apart in turn. She fell to the floor of the deck as a large steel beam from the tip of the Destroyer flew up and rammed in under the Observation Deck. The entire Command Deck of the Destroyer tore off the main body. It and Rusaan inside went flying down towards the planet's surface twisting and flailing all the way. Rusaan couldn't control herself. They had come out of hyperspace too fast for her to be able to get restrained. The jostling of the Command Deck had her slamming against one wall and the next. From the ceiling to the floor she was juggled across the deck flailing and screaming helplessly as the head of the Destroyer flew through the air.

Finally the deck crashed with a huge impact that shook the earth underneath it, and Rusaan flung through the glass of the observation window. She screamed and fell silent as she was hurled into the ground having the wind knocked out of her. She lay there unconscious, unknowing that the crash through the glass had cut her all the way from her left shoulder to her right hip which allowed the hideous disease to be able to enter her body. Her thoughts drifted slowly. They went to being back home.

The wind was cool and she had just woken up in the morning. She got up and went outside. She saw Kotra playing in the yard with their pet strill. She went over to play, but An'kin called her back inside for a moment. He said he needed her to get dressed up because today was a big day. Today was the day she was going to be able to start training with Kotra. She remembered being so excited. This was the biggest moment of her life. All her family was there except her mother, but she had left a few years ago. Kotra, An'kin, Kal, On'dru, Nae'ya, Saiya, and Se'lina; they were all there to congratulate her on her becoming old enough to train! She couldn't wait!

Then suddenly a storm started to brew and she started to tremble. The earth fell out from under her, and she started to fall. She screamed and struggled trying to grab something to pull her up, but she just kept falling.

"Rusaan!? Rusaan!?" She heard somebody cry but it was faint. It sounded like… It sounded like An'kin.

"Rusaan!? Please! Rusaan no!" It was louder. The cries slowly grew more distinct. Buir? Where was he? She cried out "Buir!" Father.

"Rusaan look at me! Rusaan!"

Slowly the darkness faded into a light. She could see An'kin's face. He was leaned over her trying to lift rubble and wreckage off of her. Was this a dream? What was going on?

"Daddy, ni… kar… ar…" was all she could squeak out of Ni kar'taylir darasuum gar. I love you. She couldn't keep her strength. She could feel her skin crawl like something was growing inside her. She could still hear him cry at her, but she couldn't comprehend any of it. She went back to the celebration. They were all cheering and congratulating her. She smiled.

"Rusaan stay with me! Rusaan!" He had cried.

An'kin started crying as he sat there alone in his room. He held the holo of his daughter in his hands. Holding it with great care and looking it over.

"I'm sorry… I couldn't save you…" He said through tear filled sobs. He remembered how it ended. Pharsa had called him. He told him of Rusaan's distress signal. Pharsa was tied up and unable to help, but An'kin was on the first shuttle to Dathomir as soon as he got the news. He didn't know what he would do if anything had happened to Rusaan.

Once he arrived he traced the site of the crash and searched frantically for her through the wreckage. Lead after hopeless lead he searched in horror at the scene. The Blackwing infested creatures were everywhere and he had to put down many of them as he searched. He loathed Blackwing. He knew all too much about it because of a scientist friend, Kiwon, he had back in Moneta. The bio-weaponized disease was manufactured by the Empire for a purpose he didn't understand, but it had mutated and instead of its main purpose, it turned anyone infected into a zombie-like creature by killing them and taking control of what was left, and they consumed anything in their path with an intense hunger. He couldn't bare the thought of Rusaan succumbing to this horrid disease.

Frantically he continued his search all over the crash site. Finally he spotted her trapped under a twisted wedge of durasteel. He rushed over to her crying at her, trying to lift the sheet of steel off of her.

"Rusaan!? Rusaan!?" He cried tears flowing down his face under his helmet.

"Rusaan!? Please! Rusaan no!" He cried trying to get her to come to. He was finally able to wedge the metal off of her enough to slide her out from under the wreckage. He knelt down beside her and shook her trying to get her to open her eyes.

"Rusaan look at me! Rusaan!" She groaned and her eyes flickered to what life was left in them. She mumbled something to him. It sounded like she was trying to say I love you.

"Rusaan stay with me! Rusaan!" He cried but she fell limp in his hands. He just sat there with her in his lap and cradled her. He couldn't believe this had happened. His only daughter… his little girl was gone.

He sat there for a few minutes until something happened that he wish he could forget forever. He started to feel her skin crawl as he held her. He took off her top jacket and stared in disbelief as he saw the cut from her shoulder to her hip. It moved and a black gooey substance was seeping out of it. He could see her veins slowly turn black around the cut as it infected her. He quickly laid her down and stood back.

"No.." He screamed, "NO!" He didn't want to watch, but he couldn't look away as what used to be his beloved daughter slowly transformed into one of those mindless Blackwing infested monsters. Tears streamed down his face as he primed his rifle.

"Ni kar'taylir darasuum gar Rus'ika." He said. And with that, he unloaded his clip into the creature, that had just started to run at him, until it fell limp at his feet. He couldn't look at it. He just closed his eyes and tried to tell himself that it didn't happen. It couldn't have happened. Never! But it wouldn't go away. He couldn't forget.

Dying inside but outwardly calm, he carefully drug her body to a clearing and cremated her. She was too mutilated to bring back for a proper burial, and he didn't want anyone else to see her this way. He sat there in the fire light on a cool Dathomir night. Releasing his daughter into the Manda.

An'kin stood up and put the holo back on the desk. He straightened up and regained his confident demeanor.

"I love you Rus'ika. But I'm not going to do you any good crying over you. You would think me a fool for doing so anyway." He said to himself. He walked out and headed to the guest quarters. He had a stowaway that needed reconciliation. He thought it was time to do right by his new friend. Lerina reminded him much of the spunky and headstrong character of Rusaan, and he felt it would bring her peace to fix the relationship he had with Lerina.


	5. Chapter 5

**5**

 **Lerina** **Deeharc. Bleeding Skulls Compound, Gree. 0300 hours GST. 14 ABY.**

Lerina awoke many hours before dawn and proceeded to prepare herself for the day. She gave a long sigh. Being in an unfamiliar room on an unfamiliar planet by herself in the dark early morning unnerved her. Her emotions began to run high every time and unfamiliar noise presented itself. Each time she ended up laughing for being so silly. All night it had been difficult to get any sleep so starting now seemed pointless. Instead, Lerina decided to wait until dawn to exit her room.

Lerina followed the officers to the mess hall for breakfast. The men shot her quizzical looks, but she didn't mind. What she did mind was the possibility that it was her that moved that blaster when she arrived. It was difficult for her to wrap her head around the very idea.

After about an hour, Lerina found her way back to her room. The incident with the blaster played over and over in her head. Was it her? Did she move it without touching it? She sat on her and pondered when she looked over at the lamp next to the bed.

A smile crossed her lips. "Don't you just love bad ideas?" Lerina whispered to herself as all her her thoughts focused on the small lamp. All she wanted to do was push it, just a little, if that was even possible. If she did pull that rifle, maybe pushing this lamp will be the catalyst in unlocking and controlling her possible power. If not, then she would just look like a moron staring at a lamp. She concentrated on the lamp until she couldn't see straight, but she was determined to accomplish the task.

The door whooshed open, causing Lerina to jump. She never expected more visitors. Before the door could finish opening, the lamp crashed into the wall. Lerina could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Nothing touched the lamp. It had to have been her. There was no other explanation, she concluded.

She looked at the man standing in her door. "That was not my intention," said Lerina as she gave an embarrassed smile. At least now she knew it was her that threw that blaster.

Lerina studied the man at the door. Only a few days she had been at the compound and she already had many visitors. The young man standing at her door looked about her age and unlike most of the people she had come across on the base, his helmet was off.

"Of course, that's why you weren't staring at the lamp." He retorted.

"Well if I wanted to break the lamp I wouldn't stare at it, I'd throw it." Lerina shot back. "But lamps are not why you're here. Is there something I can help you with or did you just visit for my charm?"

He seemed taken aback but quickly regained his composure. "Actually I was ordered to check in on you and make sure you're not dead or anything seeing as how you haven't come out your room since this morning."

"Well I'm alive. Is there anything else you need?" She shot a questioned look at him.

"You're not hungry?" The young man seemed surprised.

Lerina was silent for a moment then gave a quick chuckle. "Nope I guess not."

"Well if there is nothing you need I'll be taking my leave." He turned to the door.

She studied him. His black hair was kind of attractive she had to admit. "Wait."

"Yes?" He turned back toward her.

"What's your name?" She questioned.

He looked confused. She was confused herself as to why she wanted his name. "I go by Kote," He replied. "Why?

"Just curious," Lerina said as she got up from the bed and hopped over the glass with her bare feet. "One more quick question. Where am I exactly?"

"You can't be serious. You don't know where you are?" Kote laughed.

Lerina shot Kote an annoyed glare. "Well, I didn't exactly ask the Captain ' Hey I'm stowing away on your ship, and I was just wondering where is this convoy headed?' So where am I?"

"Okay, okay I get your point. You're at a Mandalorian compound. I don't know how much I'm allowed to tell you."

Lerina shrugged. "Well some information's better than none. Now if you excuse me I should probably pick up my mess before I step on it."

"Okay then. Have fun with that, Jedi." He chuckled as he walked out the door.

"How many times do I have to tell you people I'm not a Jedi." A slight growl crept into her voice for a moment. The door shut and Kote gone. Lerina looked out the window. "Mandalorian compound, huh?" she said under her breath. "Well, Lerina, don't you just love bad ideas." A coy smile crossed her lips.

Later that day, Lerina had explored most of the compound and memorized the maze of halls. However there was only one room that interested her the most, what looked like a combat training room. As she stepped inside a smile made its way across her face. She felt the excitement growing within her. To her, the equipment looked state-of-the-art but in reality it was old and very used. All the soldiers turned away from their tasks to eye her as she walked in. Most shot confused and amused glares.

Shrugging them off, she stepped toward the mat in the center of the room where she saw a man sitting in wait of a challenger.

The man smirked at her. "What's a little _Sheila_ like you doing here?"

Lerina rolled her eyes and laughed. "I'm sure I could ask the same of you." She paused to observe the man. "I know why you're sitting in the middle of the ring. Now, why do you think I'm here?"

Whispers and laughs started to erupt around the room.

The bulky man scoffed, "I'm not going to fight a little immature punk. That would be too easy."

Lerina was silent for a moment and pretended to inspect her nails. Insults on Nar Shaddaa were far more effective. These were more like child's play. "Immature punk, huh?" She looked up at him and matched the man's earlier smirk with one of her own. "Well, I'm sorry, for you at any rate, if you view me as little of a challenge. I do think you are overestimating your capabilities."

"Is that so?" The man questioned. She seemed to peek his interest as well as damaging his pride.

"Well, yes. You sit here and wait for a challenge instead of going and finding a challenge of your own." Lerina laughed, "And when a challenge finally presents itself to you, you refuse. Are you afraid of me? A little, what was it you called me? _Sheila_?"

Laughs erupted from around the room. There seemed to be a small crowd, some from other parts of the base. Word traveled fast it seemed. Everyone wanted to see what the outsider was capable of, and she was eager to show them.

The man rose, looking to the crowd for support from his brothers-in-arms, but all they did was laugh. "Alright, little missy, you win. You'll have your fight. But I'm warning you though," he looked her in the eyes trying to intimidate her, "this will be over quickly."

Lerina cackled, "Why yes. It will." He may have been stronger, but he was overconfident in his ability, and Lerina was sure to exploit his weakness. Guessing by his large size, she saw that he needed more room to maneuver. She would exploit this as well.

He came at her throwing his strongest punches, none of them hitting as Lerina continued to ease her way back. As she let him wear himself out she looked for an opening. She circled the ring, coaxing him to follow.

Finally, she found it. She dove underneath his punches, took his center of gravity, and knocked him to the ground. Knowing she would not be able to keep her advantage of the mount for very long, she took ahold of his right arm and forced it into an armbar. However her hold was not strong enough, and he pulled his arm out.

Lerina was forced to roll back to get away from an attempt on his part to pin her to the ground. She was sure to make her foot hit him in the jaw in the process. Back to her feet and her opponent on his knees, she smiled. He looked exhausted from throwing those punches. Although her last opening was lost, she was sure not to lose this one. Using the man's leg as leverage, the young warrior rotated her hip and drove her leg across his face. He staggered back and almost fell all the way back to the mat.

The crowd cheered. She seemed to entertain them. Lerina moved to her opponent's back to put him in an unexpected choke hold. He fell to his back in an attempt to crush her small body. As it did hurt, the man actually gave her an advantage. With the stunt he pulled, her choke only went deeper. Slowly she cut off blood circulation to his head; she could see in his eyes that she was putting him to sleep.

Over the roar of the crowd, Lerina heard what she least expected to here from a Mandalorian. He tapped out. She realized her hold on him and shoved him off of her. Lerina faced the crowd and smiled. She had just managed to embarrass another Mandalorian in front of his brothers. By now the room was almost full of cheering men and women. She had to admit, she was having more fun than she ever did in the fights on Nar Shaddaa, let alone the last two days she spent locked up in her room.

Lerina grinned at the man she embarrassed. "Still think I'm not a challenge?"

The exhausted man said nothing as he limped off the mat.

To her surprise a challenger arose from the crowd. It was Kote. He pulled a blade from the wall.

To her amusement, Lerina was happy she had a bit of experience with swords.

"How 'bout it little missy?" He challenged her.

"Let's go," she accepted as she chose her own blade from the collection. The crowd's cheers grew.

Both contenders charged and clashed their blades. They looked into each other's eyes. Kote smiled. "You really think you can win?"

"Are you sure you can take me down?" Lerina countered.

Kote laughed and pushed Lerina off his blade. He swung and missed. They stood there and looked at each other, waiting for the other to strike first. Lerina gave a small smile. Her impatience got the better of her . She raised her blade to strike, and Kote raised his to block her first attack. Kote placed one hand behind his back.

What did he hope to accomplish by giving her a handicap. Lerina advanced her attacks and Kote blocked every one of them. Kote switched to offense. He swung his sword, trying to land a blow on Lerina but to no avail. As Kote swung his sword up, Lerina leaned back to dodge. The clashing continued. Kote started to aim for her back, and as she blocked, he move his sword with such speed he cut her thigh and kicked her away.

The crowd cheered at Kote's brilliant move. However, Lerina wasn't going to let him win over the crowd. She found her balance on her hurt leg. She was nowhere near out of this fight. Kote raised his sword to her. Lerina brought her sword to her side holding it with both hands. She gave Kote a determined look. Kote slowly advanced and swung his sword. Lerina hopped back, dodging his blow, then proceeded to jump towards him to bring her sword down upon him. Kote blocked and knocked her attack away. He swung for her head. Lerina ducked. Then he aimed for her legs. She jumped over his attack. They momentarily locked blades until Lerina pushed him off. They both switched their grip on their weapons. Kote finally deciding to use both hands, locked blades with her once more.

They clashed a few more times. Kote decided to do something daring. He tripped Lerina causing her to fall on her back, however it wasn't long before Lerina pulled him to the ground with her.

Both rose from the ground, blades raised. Lerina stepped in to close the gap but Kote stepped back. Then they charged. Kote gave three quick swings at Lerina, but he missed each time. Lerina switched her style. Instead of trying to face him head on like before, she was now quick and dodged almost every attack he could throw at her. She was letting him wear himself out. She charged at him again. He swung high, so Lerina ducked and aimed for his legs. He jumped back causing her to miss. Lerina stood back up. He swung and missed again.

Lerina saw an opening. Raising her blade above her head, she gave a battle cry. Kote shrunk back in preparation for a blow. As she charged, she put her face near his and smiled. He fell for her trick. Before he realized what had happened, Lerina used the momentum she acquired during her charge to deliver a massive kick to his side. She succeeded in knocking the wind out of him. Kote collapsed to the ground.

The cheer of the crowd had filled her ears once more. She had forgotten that there where even people watching. Kote looked so winded and sweaty Lerina guessed he was about done with the fight. Lerina started to walk toward the crowd to find her next challenger when she heard Kote's voice behind her.

"Where ya' going? I'm not done yet." Kote said with exhaustion.

Lerina had to admit these men, unlike some of those she fought on Nar Shadda, were not push overs, and were just as likely to give her a run for her money just as she was doing to them.

"Fine, but how about we use fists instead of swords."

"Fine by me," Kote grinned.

Kote threw a punch, but Lerina kicked it out of her way. He was making mistakes, leaving his arms out for too long. Lerina blocked his next two punches and decided to go on the offensive. She took advantage of his fatigued state. It was time to strike hard and fast. Her series of strikes aimed for his stomach, and his eyes. Lerina ended the fight with a quick kick to the head. Kote limped off the mat and sat next to Lerina's first challenger.

Lerina looked to the crowd, by now it looked as if the entire base was in the room. It sure did sound like it. The training room was packed. Almost everyone in the compound were surrounding the main skirmish floor. Another challenger rose from the crowd. The crowd seemed to be enjoying their show enough to keep sending new challengers. This man look strong like the first one she fought.

The challenger immediately charged, giving her no time to rest from her previous battles. If she wanted to keep going she would have to end this fight quick and stay light on her toes. Lerina flipped towards him and brought a kick down upon the top of his head. They separated for a moment. Lerina dodged the first punch and countered with a kick to the pocket of his arm. He threw a kick of his own but she stepped left and kicked the inside of his thigh. When he bent over due to poor balance in his now dead leg, Lerina delivered a quick blow to the face. She ducked under his next punch and maneuvered to his back. When he turned she used his own body as leverage so she could reach his face with her leg. He tripped but got to his feet quickly.

She had to give it to him, he wasn't going to give up easy. Using a lot of her energy, Lerina jumped high and kicked him in the face once more. With him stunned, he was pretty defenseless. She stuck key pressure points causing him to collapse.

The Warden from the jails walked up and dragged him off the mat then stepped onto the mat himself. He already had his weapon drawn. The crowd shouted Ty'din.

 **An'kin Cassus** **. Bleeding Skulls Compound, Gree. 1500 hours GST. 14 ABY.**

An'kin strode into the guest quarters. Still shaken from his grief, he tried his best to keep a calm and asserting demeanor as he walked in. The breath taking remembrance of his daughters death still swelled in his mind, but he did all that he could to shake it out of his head. Instead he wanted to focus on the stowaway. The little Force sensitive, Lerina. There were many unresolved things about her that he needed to make right. As he started to think about her, his thoughts quickly turned to how his approach would be. How he could tell her without unleashing haran. He wasn't sure but he had to speak to her anyway.

An'kin finally made his way to the private chambers he had reserved for her. With a nervous gulp, he opened the door ready to face her and wipe away the ghosts of his past. An'kin looked up as the door slid open to find the room empty. Curious he walked in looking around to make sure she wasn't trying to pull something on him. The vital sign reader on his helmet's HUD didn't show any life signs in the room.

"Huh…" He wondered. "Where could she have gone off to?"

Walking back towards his chambers, An'kin was almost knocked down as a group of officers rushed past him.

"Hey where's the explosion!?" He called out to them sarcastically but assertive.

One of the officers trailing behind the group turned around with an astonished look on his face.

"There is a scuffle in the training room on the east side of the compound! Didn't you hear? The whole base is going to watch!"

"What!?" An'kin said surprised. He had been in his chambers grieving since this morning, and hadn't been up to date on the happenings of the compound. Maybe this distraction was just what he needed.

"Let's go!" he told the mercenary, and the both of them ran for the training room.

 **Kli'nah Cassus. Bleeding Skulls Compound, Gree. 1500 hours GST. 14 ABY.**

The heat of the plasma torch waved over Kli'nah's face as she helped a worker weld a piece of steel rebar. With the work finished she quickly flipped up her visor and inspected the work.

"Good job Meylonie, I think it's done. Now do the same thing on those other two over there."

Construction had been slow today, but they were making progress. It was almost quitting time for today, and she wanted to get the rest of the trusses finished on the first factory. If she could get that out of the way then all the framing and support would be done, and they could start on the walls, and actually being able to make this skeleton look like a building.

As she walked over to another part of the site to help another worker, she noticed several officers and soldiers rush from their posts over to the east wing of the compound.

"That's odd…" She thought to herself, but she brushed it off and continued on. She stooped down to help a worker lift a large durasteel beam when a shout from the compound was heard from the construction site. All work simultaneously halted, and Kli'nah whipped her head around towards the frantic shriek. She couldn't make out details, but she could hear the men talking to each other frantically, and she could see soldiers still running from their posts towards the east wing. One man shouted something and all she heard from it was the word "brawl". Then, she saw An'kin running in the midst of the other soldiers as well. That peaked her interest. If it was something that could pull An'kin out of his room today, than it must be important.

"Wait here, I'm going to go see what's going on!" she yelled at the workers, but it was too late. Who wasn't already running off toward the compound was following Kli'nah at her heels. She wouldn't admit it, but, for a slow day, she was glad to have some excitement.

 **An'kin Cassus, Lerina** **Deeharc. Bleeding Skulls Compound, Gree. 1510 hours GST. 14 ABY.**

The training room was packed. Almost everyone in the Bleeding Skullz were surrounding the main skirmish floor. An'kin could hear cheering and shouting echo through the arena. He wasn't sure over the yelling, but he thought he heard the clashing of swords, or maybe it was metal gauntlets resounding from the center of the crowd. Slowly An'kin finally was able to push and prod his way towards the center of the mass of soldiers, construction workers, and officers. Once he reached the outskirts of the training floor he couldn't believe his eyes.

"So this is what is causing all the fuss." He said to himself. He couldn't help but smile at the sight. In the middle of the skirmish arena there she was. The stowaway. Lerina had somehow started a show in the training room. Contenders from all over the inner ring of the crowd challenged her to a duel. Somehow she had managed to goad some of the mercenaries into challenging her. It was an entertaining sight, he wasn't going to lie.

From what he could tell, she had already showed three or four soldiers what for as they were sitting on a bench on the sidelines of the training floor rubbing their shoulders or necks. He looked over to the fight that was raging on in the center of the room. This particular Mandalorian she was dueling at the moment wasn't a push over. In fact, An'kin knew this one pretty well. It was Ty'din Kli, the prison Warden. He was giving her a run for her money as well. She was quick and nimble, but the burly Mando wasn't going easy on her. With a swift tackle, he had gotten her pinned on the ground laughing at her. She wasn't giving up easily either. Surprisingly, she was able to kick Ty'din's leg out from under him and shot out of his grasp. The Mando fell down with a loud thud. Lerina, quickly trying to dust herself off, found herself on the floor again. It was apparent Ty'din wasn't going to let her off easy. Lerina then did something that shocked the whole crowd, An'kin included. With a lightning fast swipe of her hand she sent Ty'din flying back against the wall of the arena. The crowd was stunned and silent for a moment. An'kin knew what she had done right from the beginning. She Force pushed Ty'din off of her with tremendous strength.

The crowd was stunned and silent for a moment. It seemed the only time her power presented itself was when she was on edge or in combat. However, she never really intended to use the power, it just happened without thinking.

After the shock wore off, half the crowd cheered. An'kin knew the other half must of had mixed emotions. Having a Jedi defeat you was not something to be taken lightly.

Ty'din, shaken but steady, got up and started to lunge at her again but was stopped before he could reach her. In surprise he turned around to see who had stopped him. He was ready to punch his lights out for being so humiliated until he saw who it was.

An'kin stepped in and shook his head at Ty'din. Ty'din's face mellowed, and he just stepped back and looked at An'kin curiously. An'kin motioned for him to go back to the crowd and turned around to face Lerina.

Lerina half expected him to scold his troops for abandoning their duties to watch skirmishes, and confine her to the guest quarters or at the worst throw her in a cell. She looked at the man curiously, wondering what he was about to do.

Instead of berating his troops and scolding her like she though he would, he stood in a stable and solid stance getting in an offensive position. He pulled out his Vibrosword and pointed it at Lerina. Discovering she had lost her sword during the fight, Lerina pulled over one of the training swords from the rack on the wall readied it as well.

"You ready to get your butt handed to you Mandalorian? It'll be a bummer to be shown up in front of all your men!" She taunted. The crowd gasped and started laughing. She didn't know why, but there was still something about this man she did not like, which only loosened her tongue.

He smiled. "You think you can waltz right into my base and start wiping out my men? Give me your best little lady, but I must warn you. Your immature shebse will be the only thing that will be handed to today."

Lerina's face turned from a playful countenance to a look of anger and apparent embarrassment. "I'll show you who's immature!" She yelled and with that she lunged full force with sword blazing straight at the man.

He was sure this would be over quickly. He had gotten her angry, and it was making her think irrationally. Maybe if she wasn't mad then she might have been more of a challenge, but he knew she was off compared to her previous encounters with the other men.


	6. Chapter 6

**6**

 **Kli'nah Cassus. Bleeding Skulls Compound, Gree. 1525 hours GST. 14 ABY.**

Kli'nah was trying to push her way through the crowd, but since she had gotten in the training room the crowd had grown twice as big as it was before she arrived. The whole compound was there, and it was all she could do to squeeze through. The crowd was cheering louder than ever. She could hear screams and shouts coming from the east wing from outside, but now something was going on that had the whole crowd in an uproar. She yelled and looked frantically around to see if she could find An'kin in the midst of the people but with no luck. Being shorter than most she couldn't tell what was going on that far into the middle of the room. The crowd started to laugh, then go back to cheering, then laughing again. Some sort of demonstration was going on, but she couldn't make out what it was. She tried tugging on a soldier's arm to ask if he could see anything but the man just brushed her off, obviously reeled into what was happening in the arena.

She had had enough of this. Forcefully, Kli'nah pushed and nudged her way through the crowd until finally she found herself at the edge of the ring. When she finally saw what was happening she was confused. Had An'kin got knocked off his rocker? She stared at the heated fight that was waging in front of her. An'kin, for some reason she couldn't understand, was in a melee duel with the stowaway.

"What is going on here!?" she screamed but the deafening sound of the crowd drowned her out. She watched as An'kin swiped away every emotionally misguided slash and swipe the stowaway threw at him. She seemed so desperate, but it was obvious her emotions had gotten her distracted. An'kin was just toying with her, Kli'nah could tell. She knew because, even on a bad day, he could have landed herself on the floor within seconds. How long was he going to just let her fight him? Was he trying to teach her something? Goad her into something? She didn't understand, but she found herself enjoying the scene. It was entertaining if anything though she did feel a little sorry for the girl.

She spotted Kotra standing on the sidelines on the other side of the arena talking with a banged up soldier. Ty'din, she thought it was. Struggling through the crowd around the edge of the ring she was able to make her way over to them.

"What is the deal here ad'ika?" She asked Kotra.

"Dad's got himself a little play doll!" He laughed back. "Oh you should have seen it. That little _shabuir_ handed it to Ty'din pretty good. That little thing's a Force user if you can believe it!"

"It wasn't fair! I call _osik_!" Ty'din tried yelling over the crowd in response.

"Yea, that _sheila_ pounded him!" Kotra laughed at Ty'din. Ty'din just gave him an embarrassed and disgusted look. The two men kept on joking with each other and watched the match. It was clear that she wasn't going to get any useful information out of them, though the fact that the little girl was a Force user struck something deep inside her. She didn't understand it but she was instantly interested in the outcome of this match. She decided to watch and see what panned out.

 **Lerina** **Deeharc and An'kin Cassus. Bleeding Skulls Compound, Gree. 1525 hours GST. 14 ABY.**

Just as she had gotten up on him, he made a quick side step and parried her feeble strike. He had gotten her angry, and it was making her think irrationally just as she had done to her challengers. He swiped away every emotionally misguided slash and swipe. Lerina kept coming at him, but she would never land a hit she threw at him.

Sweat was just starting to bead up on An'kin's brow. Lerina kept coming at him but she would never land a hit. An'kin knew how to fight against Jedi, and this girl was not fully trained.

Lerina was getting frustrated and winded. She knew why she couldn't hit him. She let her emotions get the best of her, and that is why she was failing miserably. With every blow parried, Lerina felt her frustration rise to the point of where she couldn't suppress it any longer. She knew he was just playing with her, which just made her anger boil. He landed playful and infuriating blunt hits on her arms and legs. She wanted to show this Mandalorian what she could do. She wanted to do to him just as she did to Ty'din, but she couldn't control when and where she used it.

Swing after swing, stab after stab, the man blocked and knocked away every one. After every parry he would hit her on the arm with the blunt of his blade, and she would strike back with more and more ferocity. As his smile widened behind his helmet her anger enraged. Finally, out of pure irritation and frustration, Lerina did something no one was fully expecting.

An'kin flew back and hit the ground struggling to keep his Vibrosword up and blocking his torso. Lerina, the skinny little stowaway, somehow shot a strong bolt of lightning at him knocking him off his feet. It didn't deal any damage though. He had blocked it just in time and held his sword firm until the lighting passed out of it and into the floor.

Lerina stood there stunned at what she had just pulled off. It unnerved and scared her.

Thoughts flashed through her mind in a matter of seconds. How was she able to create something of that nature? All she had been able to do before was pull and push objects to or from her. Never anything like this.

Before she could make another move, An'kin lunged at her knocking her to the ground, and he had her pinned on the floor with her arms and legs swiftly grouped together and tied with hunting wire. Her shock caused her to not even know what hit her.

The crowd, in awe, cheered louder than ever as An'kin picked Lerina, kicking and screaming, up off the floor. He slung her over his shoulder and proceeded to walk through the crowd out of the training room. Lerina, knowing it was useless, quit squirming and just rested there on his shoulder as he walked her out of the building. Before she knew it An'kin had her back in her chambers sitting on her bed.

 **Kli'nah Cassus. Bleeding Skulls Compound, Gree. 1530 hours GST. 14 ABY.**

The crowd started to thin out and go back to their duties. Kli'nah stood there waiting for them to file out before she even tried to go back to the construction site. Kotra and Ty'din were still hanging around the arena picking on each other.

"Boys, calm down and answer me something." She called to them. They both walked over, Ty'din still with an embarrassed flushed face.

"Do you know why you're father was doing this? This is the anniversary… he has been in his room all day. And now, I'm having to postpone construction because he's wound up fighting a little girl?" She aimed at Kotra.

The to men shared a quick glance at each other. Kotra shrugged.

"Not sure Kli. We just heard all the hoop and holler like the rest of them. Came in here and saw Lerina fighting some of the boys. Ty'din thought it looked like fun, so he decided to have a whack at it." And under his breath he added jokingly, "Which was a poor decision on his part."

Ty'din heard him and elbowed Kotra in the ribs. Kotra irritatedly said, "ouch" and shot him a mean glare then continued with his story.

"Anyway, after she Force pushed Ty'din, Ty'din was about to attack her again, but then dad stepped in. Ty'din came down here with me and dad finished it. It was awesome! He was toying with her the whole time. Really showed us how a real Mandalorian should handle a Jedi!"

Kli'nah wasn't sure how to take that. What she did know, however, was that An'kin must be going through something, and she should be there to help him with it, and make sure he doesn't do anything he will regret. Leaving the two guys to duke it out some more, she left to find An'kin. She knew he would most likely be in the guest chambers.

 **Lerina Deeharc and An'kin Cassus. Planet: Gree. 15:35 GST. Bleeding Skullz Guest Quarters. 14 ABY.**

Lerina, untied and bandaged, sat on the foot of her bed. The man had taken the wire off and cleaned what wounds she had. Not a word had been uttered between them until he had her settled down. Nor did she want to speak to him. He broke the silence.

"You gave my boys quite a fight out there today Lerina." He said jokingly, hoping to break the ice. "What you did to my man Ty'din, very funny." He continued to wipe a cut on her face.

He was still wearing his helmet, she had grown to despise that skull looking hunk of metal. "Why do you always wear that? It makes me angry." She replied.

She couldn't read the expression behind the mask, but she could tell he was taken aback. "Wear what?"

Lerina wondered if this guy was an idiot. How could he not know she was talking about the helmet? The last time they talked she wouldn't respond until he took it off then too. "The helmet, juma head..." she said with annoyance and attitude in her voice. For some reason, she found that she couldn't care less about the other mandalorians' helmets, but his tugged at her constantly. May it was because his helmet was unique. The visor was still "T" shaped but closures in the mask made it have an intimidating and menacing skull look. Customized teeth protruded from the bottom sides of the mask, and a dominating line of spikes lined the top of the helmet.

Carefully, he slid his helmet off and looked Lerina in the eyes. She looked down at the helmet then back at him. He could tell she was going over something in her mind, but he wasn't sure what it was.

"Why does my helmet bother you so much?" He squinted at her curiously. Lerina paused for a moment.

She knew it from somewhere. That tug of recognition only grew stronger and stronger every time it appeared before her. Lerina looked down at the helmet then back at him. But where? Something was off. Something wasn't right. The idea that she couldn't pinpoint the memory frustrated her.

"I… I know it from somewhere." Finally came a reply. Lerina seemed like she was deep in thought studying his helmet.

Her mind zipped through her memories. The farthest she could remember seeing that helmet struck at her core. She couldn't believe it. It was him! She remembered the fighting style he used from one of the security tapes she had gotten ahold of from one of the security cameras her father had set up. Lerina went into momentary shock. It all made sense now! How he knew about the death of her parents, why he made her an honorary guest! He killed them! Then suddenly she backed away and stared frightened into his eyes. fear and anger rose in her.

An'kin was caught off guard. Had she really figured it out that fast? Lerina started to stutter.

Lerina started to stutter. "You… it… it's you!" she squeaked out.

He lowered his head. "How did you figure it out?" He asked shamefully.

Lerina stared frightfully at him. "My… my father wasn't helpless. You… you had to fight him. I knew som...something was familiar about your fighting." She trembled. "And… and your helmet," she continued. "I remember it from all those years ago…" She started to cry. The murderer leaned in to comfort her, but she squirmed farther back and pushed him away sobbing. "You… You killed my parents!" She screamed. At that moment a gasp blurted out behind them. Lerina looked up to find Kli'nah at the door. She looked horrified to find out what this man had done. In Lerina's eyes, all of his followers should abandon him for his crimes.

Kli'nah looked at An'kin with a sad and denying stare. An'kin saw her eyes start to water.

When the man stood, Lerina scooted to the back of the bed. "Cyar'ika, I can explain…" the man said to the frightened women in the doorway. "Kli'ika, it's a long story. I'm not proud of it. I was a different man back then. I'm sure you have done similar acts! Why are you getting so upset?" He pleaded with her. She fell into his arms and looked over at Lerina sobbing on the bed.

Eventually he had settled the women down and let her leave the room. As he brough a chair over to the bed, all Lerina could think about was vengeance. She couldn't shake the feeling that she had to kill him for what he had done. Just how many other people had he made suffer like her?

He sat down and sighed. "I know, this is going to be hard for you to hear, but please listen to me." He said sorrowfully. "My name is An'kin Cassus. Eighteen years ago, I was a different man than I am today. I had lost my way and resorted to bounty hunting in order to make money. Your parents were Jedi with a bounty on their heads. It was my job to find them and eliminate them. Usually I wouldn't take jobs," he continued, "that only wanted the target dead, but I was desperate and needed the credits. Now I know that didn't justify my actions. And… I know I put you through _haran_ for what I did."

He paused. Lerina sat there. She had stopped crying and was listening intently on every word he said. ' _Like you understand! Like you know what hell you put me through!'_ Lerina screamed in her head.

"Lerina, I'm sorry. I have to tell you something else." His eyes started to water.

"Today… today is the anniversary of my beloved daughter's death. Rusaan was only eighteen. The age you are now."

Lerina's eyes began to water. ' _Just because your daughter died doesn't mean you know what I've been through. You don't know me!'_ Thoughts continued to scream in her head.

He continued, "She… she was infected by the blackwing virus after a freak accident. She… she turned on me. Lerina, my own daughter… turned on me." An'kin couldn't hold back his tears any longer. He had been a toughened and seasoned warrior, but the memory of this fact still haunted him and he couldn't take the thought of his little girl coming at him with those eyes full of hunger."

' _I should kill you, bastard!'_

"I… I had… had to shoot her, Lerina." Those words hit home.

"You don't know what it's like. Watching your only daughter die in your arms then turn on you with unwavering hunger! I… I had to shoot her Lerina." He sat there with his head low, holding in the tears as hard as he could.

Lerina started to bawl uncontrollably. She wanted to kill him. She wanted to take revenge for those who could not. But how could she? Was there anything left to kill? Before her sat a broken man who had suffered loss, just as she did. Before her sat a man full of regret. An'kin raised his head and looked at her. She stared straight back into his eyes. Instead of seeing the dark soulless eyes he had trained to be stone cold, she saw a broken and humbled soul. She knew, somehow, he had changed since all those years ago.

She scooted over to him and grabbed his hand. Her hand fit softly into his. An'kin looked down. She stared straight into his eyes and uttered the words in which she was dumbfounded to her herself saying. "An'kin, I… I forgive you." She said through tear filled sobs.

They both hugged each other and sat there letting the moment sink in. She cursed her soft heart. She should have taken revenge, but she couldn't. Whether or not if she truly meant the words she spoke would only be proved in the future, but now it was time to let go. It was time to make the past ghosts stop haunting her. It was time to look to the future, whatever her time here at the compound may bring.


	7. Chapter 7

**7**

 **Lerina** **Deeharc** **. Planet: Gree. 0534 hours GST. Bleeding Skullz Compound. 14ABY.**

Lerina rose early in the morning and sat alone in the darkness of her room. As far as the compound knew, she had been quiet and secluded. However, what has been going on within the room was quite different. For the past week she grew more and more frustrated as she tried to learn how to trigger her power on command. All week, when she least expected it, fragile items exploded around her, however, when she tried to accesses the force nothing happened. Kote would periodically check up on her, sometimes with food, throughout the day. Whenever he saw her frustration and a broken lamp or frame, he would encourage her and try to make her smile, but it didn't help. It only made it worse. It reminded her of how cooped up she has been and it made her feel claustrophobic.

She dressed and slipped her feet into her boots. Just one more try. Lerina closed her eyes, breathed, and concentrated on the mirror across the room. She raised her hand toward the object she wished to move. She just needed to move it, even if it was just the tiniest inch. The girl stayed there for what seemed like forever.

Giving up, Lerina let out a frustrated and disappointed grunt. She couldn't do it. All of a sudden a crack called to her from behind. She jumped around to face the noise. Everything started shattered around her. Glass fell from walls; the furnishings collapsed on itself; the end result looked like a bomb exploded in the middle of the room, and she was the source of the mayhem. She had no objection that it was her doing. Lerina sighed. She had to get out. She couldn't stay in this disaster area much longer lest the ceiling collapse from her growing anger at herself.

Lost in thought, Lerina stepped outside her room and began to wander the halls. There was not a place left to explore within the compound. But what was outside? What lay beyond the wall of trees? Maybe it was time to get some fresh air.

After a few hours, she found herself making a path through the vines of the forest, which was difficult with the dull training sword from the combat room. Even so, she pushed forward. Lerina followed a path that led from the compound to who knows where. The path was rugged and the forest longed to overtake it.

She made her way across the path and a clearing until she stumbled upon an ancient city. Some buildings looked to be in ruins while others, covered in overgrowth, managed to stand tall. The bones of unidentifiable creatures littered the ruins. Some were just lumpy skulls with large bug eyes, others with their thin spines attached. Were they the remains of animals? Or where they people? Lerina made her way to one of the stronger looking buildings and climbed up the vines to its roof. When she reached the top, she studied the ruins. They were not of the same design as the ones An'kin and his men were constructing back at the compound. No, the Mandalorians built things to last. These were of another architecture.

Lerina hopped from roof to roof of the erect buildings taking care not to land on any weak points. The result was a slow exploration. However, it gave her more opportunity to study them a little longer and look for signs of any creatures that had made the ruins their home. The ancient city amazed her. Where did all of the residents go? Were the bones belonging to the people who built the buildings? If so, how were they wiped out? Did the others in the compound even know that the ruins were here? These questions boggled her mind.

She leaped onto a building that was half caved in and made her way back down to the streets. Lerina wandered through a few of the buildings. From the look of the broken consoles, she had to guess these people were pretty advanced. So how did an advanced race disappear and abandon the great city? She walked through the streets for a few more hours. She felt like a caged bird, wondrous of the life that consumed these people and their fate. Near the middle of the city stood a tall building. It looked to be in better condition than all of the others that she came across.

Lerina stepped inside. The room was dusty and the only light in the room came from the doorway, but it was enough to dimly light the area. The ground was littered with dirty dishes, toppled chairs, and broken tables. She inspected the room for any signs of life but found none. She noticed a small room off to her left. Casually she walked inside and inspected the carnage. There were old computer consoles and run down machinery of unknown uses. All she found that seemed interesting enough to explore was an old turbolift to the right of the door. Whether or not it operated remained to be seen. Lerina entered the cramped space of the lift and started pushing random buttons and switches. Miraculously the lift began to rise. She stood inside allowing it to take her to wherever its destination lied.

The ride was shaky, slow, and unpleasant, but to Lerina's relief, it ended on the floor above the one she left. The room that outstretched before her was unbearably dark; She could not see her own hands. She reached for the glow stick she had stuck in her pocket before she left the compound and activated it. The green glow did not reach far, but it was enough. Lerina tread lightly. The room was mostly empty, with the exception of what looked to be a ten foot statue in the middle of the room. As she grew closer, the glow stick slowly illuminated more of its features. She placed her small hand on the base of the statue and began to slowly circle it. It looked, and felt, to be made of the same stone as the building. Its unusual look was horrendous. The creature had massive sad eyes, a tall forehead, six tentacles of varying sizes, lumpy skin, and a large awkward sac on the back of the skull. Lerina wanted to cringe at the sight but kept her composure. There was an area on the base in front of the figure that was large enough for Lerina to settle down for a few minutes.

Leaning on one of the strange tentacles, Lerina sat in silence as she casually tossed the glow stick up and caught it as it landed. She rested there for a few minutes doing just that. It was doubtful the lift would bring her back to the floor below; it was a miracle that it even worked long enough to bring her up. About thirteen tosses later, Lerina finally dropped the glow stick. Letting out a heavy sigh, she laid her head back and closed her eyes. She let her mind wonder freely as she hummed a melodic tune. The good acoustics in the room only made her mind wander more. She dreamed of the activity on the compound.

It seemed so real. The men were hard at work constructing whatever they were building; trainees stuck to the combat training room, Kotra sat in the yard of the training room as he started to sharpen his blade. The compound began to shake. A beam fell in the construction yard with a loud thud, causing Lerina to jump out of her dream and back into reality. She frantically looked around the room. The floor had started to crack and make noise. Within the next moment she found herself in a free fall, the crumbling statue not far behind her. The glow sticks light was gone. Everything became pitch black.

 **Kote Nau'ul. Planet: Gree. 1123 GST. Bleeding Skullz Compound. 14ABY.**

Kote strolled to Lerina's quarters, breakfast in hand. Every morning he brought her breakfast. She had been refusing to exit her room ever since her confrontation with An'kin. Kote had to guess Lerina was embarrassed; then again she could be hard to read at times. Of course, being trapped in her room forced her to find ways to entertain herself, whether it be teasing Kote or breaking lights with the Force. Today would be different, he wanted a rematch. Training may be a good way to encourage her to exit her room once in a while.

He knocked on the door, the armor on his knuckles made a louder noise than he intended. No answer. He tried again and, again, received no response. Did she leave her room already? Maybe she was still asleep. Kote opened the door, eyes widened with shock. The sunlight coming through the window was enough to illuminate the horrid state of the guest room. The bed was broken in on itself, shattered lights, lamps, and wall decor were scattered all over the floor. Kote treaded with light footsteps inside. Other than the horrendous state of the room, something tugged at him and told him this emotionally dangerous girl had gotten herself into trouble. There weren't many places he could think of where she had gone.

In haste he marched down the hall and stopped one of the other residents on the floor. "You there! Have you seen Lerina?" The worry in his voice projected itself no matter how hard he tried to conceal it.

"Lerina?" The man questioned with a thoughtful and confused look upon his face.

Kote sighed, everyone knew there was a stowaway staying with them but the whole compound did not know her name. "Yes you know… the stowaway girl."

"Ah, that's her name, huh? Interesting character that one. Why are.." Kote cut him off.

"Just tell me where she is." He glared into the man's eyes. This was no time for idle conversation.

The man shrugged. "I don't keep track of the girl."

Kote let out a frustrated sigh. Someone had to see her go off somewhere. He looked down at the food he still held and gave it to the ignorant man. "Here, enjoy. Thanks for the help."

The man looked more confused than before. "Thank you?"

Kote continued through the complex checking the mess hall and the training room. If there was any sign of her, it did not make itself apparent. There was one thing left to do. If she had gotten into trouble then he would need help finding her. There was only one man he could think of that could help him, the one other person that took particular interest in her. An'kin Cassus.

An'kin Cassus. Planet: Gree. 1137 GST. Bleeding Skullz Compound. An'kin Cassus.

The sun crept in through the window in An'kin's quarters. It gently shone on An'kin's eyes slowly waking him from his sleep. He was groggy. It had been a busy day yesterday at the construction site. Yawning, he slowly propped himself up on the bed and looked out the window. It was almost mid-day. He was surprised he had slept so long. The days were short this time of the year on Gree, and he had much to do before the sun set.

A faint whimper emerged from the bed beside him. He looked down as Kli'nah squirmed still half asleep. He was surprised that she was still asleep more than he was of himself sleeping so late. He looked down on his sweet wife. She looked so at peace as she lay there. About a month ago she had told him that she was pregnant, and it was starting to show. She still maintained her juvenile looks though. It was stunning how young she looked. They were both in there fifties, and he wondered from time to time how she managed it, but he wasn't complaining.

"Time to get up, cyar'ika." He gently whispered in her ear as his hand caressed her cheek. She fidgeted a little, but finally sat up rubbing her eyes. She looked over at An'kin with his cute smirkish grin beaming back at her. She smiled at him.

"What time is it?" She asked still shaking off the sleep.

"About noon I'd say." He answered. The sun shown on her giving a majestic glow. She looked like an angel, and he had been so busy lately to notice. Slowly he leaned in and gave her a playful smile.

"You're crazy!" She laughed as they shared a playful but passionate kiss. She chuckled once more and looked into his eyes.

"Maybe tonight my love, we are late in our work today." She grinned. An'kin rolled his eyes. She was right, sadly. There was much work to be done. They both got out of bed and started getting ready for the day. A moment or two later a loud crash resounded through the compound that emanated from the construction site. Startled, An'kin was about to rush out the door until he felt a hand softly tug at his shoulder.

"I'll investigate An'ika. You finish getting geared up." Kli'nah's soft voice stepped in. An'kin reluctantly nodded and continued to get dressed for the day.

"Make sure they are doing their job! I'd hate to have to hold a court martial!" An'kin called after her sarcastically.

"Manda forbid we would have to do that!" She called back. An'kin smiled to himself. Just another day at the Bleeding Skulls compound, or so he thought. He was sitting on the bed strapping on his boots when he heard a man's voice acknowledge Kli'nah as they passed in the hall. He looked up just in time to see Kote step through his door way. He seemed a little concerned but unabridged. He was a skinny young lad, and couldn't have been more than 20-years-old. The only time he recalled meeting him was when he was first introduced by Ty'din. He had been an officer under him in the RSF on Naboo. He was a good lad and, from what he understood, tended and checked in on Lerina often every day.

"Yes son? Is there a problem?" An'kin asked him curiously. Normally common soldiers wouldn't bother him in his private quarters unless there was something really important to tend to.

By now Kote had gotten his wild emotions of worry and fear under control, though his concerned look was too stubborn to leave his face. He learned the hard way back on Naboo in his days serving with the RSF to not let emotions get in the way of the mission; they only distract one from reaching the objective. He pushed his past from his head.

"Well sir, I'm not sure. I went to go check in on Lerina earlier, and she wasn't in her room." He answered. "Things in her room often tend to get broken from time to time, but this time when I visited, her room was a mess, and she wasn't in there!" His face grew more and more concerned as he explained the situation. An'kin sat and thought for a moment.

' _Lerina seems to have gotten herself into some trouble eh?_ ' He thought to himself. It had been a week since their last confrontation in the dueling arena, and she had been quiet ever since. She must have finally grown tired of being cooped up in her room.

"Any idea where she could have gone off to?" An'kin questioned.

Kote shook his head.He had already checked where she would have most likely been. If there was another place that peaked her interest, he did not know about it. "No sir, I'm kinda worried about her."

An'kin stood up and patted Kote on the shoulder. He shot him a teasing smile. "Don't worry son, she's fine. There isn't much your girlfriend can't handle."

Kote blushed at the thought. Sure he enjoyed her company but he had never thought about it the way An'kin was jesting.

He looked amused at Kote's reaction. "Come on, ad'ika, let's go find her shall we?" He prodded Kote.

Kote agreed and anxiously followed him out the door. He was glad An'kin was willing to help him. They made their way to her room. If there was something that Kote missed, An'kin would probably find it. He stepped inside and immediately crushed a piece of broken glass."Interesting." An'kin said under his breath. With no clues or signs of her in the living quarters, they casually made their way to the construction site.

The construction site was progressing smoothly and the first factory was almost complete. When they reached it, Kli'nah explained that one of the cranes had accidentally dropped a steel beam, but nothing was majorly damaged. Kote understood the importance of the factory, but Lerina was his top priority at the moment. Kli'nah did not know anything about Lerina, however. Kote grew more nervous with every dead lead. The fact that he still couldn't think of any places that would be interesting to her didn't help.

"Don't fret Kote. She can't be too far. We will find her." An'kin encouraged. They continued to ask around the construction site but to no avail. After about an hour of searching, they ran into Kotra, An'kin's son. He sat by the training compound sharpening his blade. "Come on Kote. Let's see if Kotra knows anything."

Kote nodded but didn't have much hope that Kotra knew much. He followed along quickly as they walked over to where Kotra was sitting.

Kotra seemed concentrated and unaware of them coming up behind him. An'kin cleared his throat and crossed his arms in a joking manner. Kotra was jerked out of his trance and looked around at An'kin and Kote. "Afternoon gents." Kotra nodded. "What seems to be the problem?" He turned back around and continued the care of his vibroblade.

An'kin walked around in front of him, whipped out his vibroblade, and proceeded to sharpen it as well. Kote couldn't help but to cling up onto a thin strip of hope that Kotra knew something. He grew more anxious and didn't like how casually An'kin was treating the situation. His honored guest was missing! Kote knew he shouldn't be worried. Lerina was probably okay, but he couldn't help growing more and more concerned for her, and he couldn't figure out why. Did he really have feelings for her? He thought about it for a moment. He was confused and unsure. All he wanted was to make sure she was safe. Once she is safe, he can sort out his feelings then.

An'kin shot a glance at Kote as he leaned in a little closer to Kotra. "Eh, not much. Just seems as though Lerina has gotten herself lost. Nobody has seen her or knows where she is. I'm not too worried." An'kin finally replied.

Kotra's eyebrows jumped up but his eyes did not waiver from his sword. "Lerina huh? I think I remember seeing her running off into the woods earlier today." Kotra looked up and pointed off into the woods behind the living quarters. "That way I think. Towards the Gree ruins over there. Haven't seen her since though. Figured she came back when I was focused on my work."

Finally a lead. The clue put Kote a little more at ease, but he didn't like the idea that she went off into the ruins alone, let alone the woods. He couldn't help but feel protective of her. She didn't need it, but still he felt it was his duty.

"Ah! What a relief. Thanks son. We best be off to find her." An'kin nodded at Kote.

"No problem, _buir_. Careful." Kotra said. He went back to sharpening his blade. An'kin got up and guided Kote towards the woods. "Well, let us see to it your girlfriend gets back here, aye?" He teased Kote again.

Kote blushed again and nodded. They both hiked through the jungle towards the ruins Kotra had talked about. Cutting through the vines wasn't difficult. Some of them were already cut for him, no doubt Lerina's cutting job. Not all of them were cut though, her small build allowed her to slip through places where Kote could not. They had tracked a trail leading from the compound through the woods and came to what looked to be a clearing. The ruins Lerina had probably made her way to was passed the clearing. Kote continued a few paces then realized An'kin wasn't following him. He turned around to see An'kin standing at the clearing with his eyes closed. He was confused. He had never seen An'kin like this. Something major must have had happened in this area to bother him so, but he couldn't begin to guess what.

"An'kin?" He asked. An'kin opened his eyes to Kote's words. "Is everything ok?"

An'kin looked across the field. "Yea, just… painful memories in this place." An'kin finally responded.

Kote just nodded without questioning it. He could tell it probably wasn't something An'kin wanted to talk about. He started to walk slowly across the clearing. Kote caught him looking into the sky a few times as they made their way across. Not a word was uttered until they arrived at the ruins.

 **Lerina** **Deeharc** **. Planet: Gree. 1205 hours GST. Bleeding Skullz Compound. 14ABY.**

The stone rested upon her body in the most unbearable fashion, the weight of it longing to crush its victim. Lerina batted open her eyes and whimpered in pain. Without her glow stick, she was rendered blind and hopeless.

Utilizing her free hand, she shoved some of the loose rubble of her body. There wasn't much that could be moved, much to her disappointment. It was slightly better however, even if it was only a few pounds. It was probably the best she could hope for at the moment. Well, other than a rescue party of course, but the likelihood of one coming was slim. Lerina wondered if anyone even knew if she was gone. Probably not, the only way they could know is if someone visited her room. Her room. At about eleven Kote would bring her breakfast. He would eventually discover her disappearance. Or so she hoped. Lerina clung to the small sliver of chance he would find her. The idea of him not coming worried her more than her the chance got her hopes up.

As far as she could tell, she was alone. Lerina attempted to slip out of the stones' hold on her, only being able to free her other hand. At least there was progress.

She struggled for hours bursting out every curse in huttese she knew. The dreaded rocks were too heavy to lift alone. She had only managed to dig out part of her chest and cut her hands. Frustrated, she rest for a moment. The thought of using the force tingled in the back of her mind, but he pushed it away. She did not want to use the very thing that had gotten her into this mess. Besides, it would probably only make matters worse. She would have to do this with her strength alone, or die trying.


	8. Chapter 8

**8**

 **Kote Nau'ul, An'kin Cassus, Lerina Deeharc. Planet: Gree. 1323 GST. Ancient Gree Ruins. 14 ABY.**

"The ruins should be right through here." An'kin informed as they broke through some undergrowth. They peaked through some vines out at the grand, overgrown ruins of the ancient Gree city. It was mysterious and immense and looked to be a patriarch of Gree society. Broken down sky scrapers dotted the landscape, many other buildings and compounds were over grown with vines, weeds, and grass.

As they made their way into the ruins to search for Lerina, Kote stepped on something that made an intense crunching sound. He looked down to see a gruesome sight. A skull of some animal or perhaps an ancient Gree was smashed under his boot. "Uch!" Kote let out.

"Heh, get used to that Kote. Gree skeletons and ancient bones litter these ruins. Just watch your step." An'kin advised.

The further they ventured into the city, the more the trail went cold. She could be anywhere, Kote thought to himself. All they could do now was search around, but it was a big city to search for one girl who left no clues. "Lerina!? Lerina!?" Kote shouted. He listened for her response but only heard An'kin shushing him.

"Be quiet. We don't want to wake anything up if there is anything big sleeping in here."

"Sorry…" He didn't really care if a creature from _Haran_ challenged them, no matter what they would bring it down. The ruins coming down on top of them was a larger risk. Kote walked into a small vendor shop-looking building. Everything was grown over and a couple skeletons were draped over the counter and on the floor. They were horridly abnormal. He had never seen any species like these. They were the same creature he had smashed under his boot just moments ago. Staring at the weird sight he felt a hand grab his shoulder. Startled he jumped forward and whipped around; eyes wide with shock.

"Careful Kote, It's just me." An'kin laughed.

Kote shot him an angry glare. He was so jumpy but could not pin point the source of his edginess. Maybe it was the skeletons. "Don't do that to me…"

"Come on I think I picked up her trail."

Kote's eyes lit up with hope. If he was right, they wouldn't need to continue searching the entire city. Both of them jogged over to where An'kin had spotted freshly cut vines in front of a door. They walked into a massive lobby of what seemed to be an ancient hotel or office building. It, like the rest of the town, was completely overgrown, but a small trail of crushed leaves and vines led to a little room off to the left of the lobby.

"Let's see where that leads, aye?" An'kin said. Without waiting for an answer, he followed the trail into the dark room.

Kote followed hot on his heels until An'kin stopped. He took a breath to ask why they had stopped but An'kin just shushed him. He seemed to be listening. Kote joined in. They could hear a faint noise coming from somewhere nearby. The noise seemed to be emanating from underneath the room. It sounded like a faint crying.

An'kin turned on a flashlight on his gauntlet and waved it around the room. Nothing of interest could be seen until he passed it over the floor.

"Shab." An'kin whispered to himself, but Kote heard it.

"What is i…" He was about to ask until he looked at where An'kin's flashlight was shining. There was a huge hole in the floor with trampled and ripped vines lining it. A few pieces of debris from the ceiling were sitting around the hole as well. Kote was about to run over but An'kin stopped him with a hand firmly holding him back.

"Careful." An'kin slowly made his way to the edge of the hole and knelt down. He shined his flashlight down the hole. He looked above him, and, sure enough, there was a giant hole in the ceiling.

Kote looked at the two enormous gaps and probably thought the same thing as An'kin. Something or someone did something to collapse the floor and fell two stories. He wondered how anything was capable of surviving a fall like that with heavy stone.

Lerina laid in the stone's hold, exhausted and thirsty. Her hands were sticky with blood and the cuts felt like they were on fire. The pressure on her felt worse than before. She couldn't help but wonder if something else had toppled on her without her noticing. Lerina whimpered as she continued to try and move the debris. Hours she had tried but still to no avail.

"Hello!? Is anybody down there?" An'kin yelled down the hole. The crying stopped for a moment. They waited to see if there would be a response. After a few seconds they heard shuffling, but An'kin's flashlight revealed nothing.

She stopped be whimpers for a moment. She could see light and hear voices. Finally a rescue. Lerina tried to shuffle out of her space hoping it wasn't her mind playing tricks.

"Hello? Who is down there?" An'kin yelled again.

Lerina opened her mouth to respond.

"Lerina!?" Kote shouted after him.

' _Kote! Unbelievable, he was able to find me,'_ Lerina processed as she was silent for a moment. Her voice was faint but she tried to make it audible. "Kote?"

"Lerina!? Is that you?" Kote shouted back anxiously.

Lerina couldn't help but smile. "Kote! Thank goodness! I thought I was a goner!" Her feeble voice shouted back.

"Guys you have to be quiet! Lerina, this is An'kin I'm coming down to get you." An'kin said trying to quiet them down. Kote watched as An'kin attached a snare cable from his gauntlet to what looked to be a sturdy piece of rubble. Kote decided to keep watch on the upper level.

Lerina watched as he slowly made his descent into the cavern. "I'm over here! I'm trapped under some stinking rubble!" Lerina shouted at him. An'kin shined his flashlight over towards her voice. She could finally see what she was trapped under. Lerina was pinned up against the side of what looked to be a tunnel that ran under the building and a flat wall of steel shrapnel. She wondered if the tunnel ran under the entire city. If so, would anyone still be alive down there?

"Lerina, please be quiet! Who knows what could be down here!" He quietly projected down the hole.

An'kin was almost to the bottom when a loud snap resounded from above him. His armor made a thwack as he fell in a heap on the floor of the tunnel. Groaning, he got up and dusted himself off. "What happened?" He said in a hushed yell back up to Kote.

"The rubble gave way! There was nothing I could do!" Kote shouted in response without effort to keep his voice down.

"Shush it, di'kut!" An'kin tried to get Kote to be quiet. He reeled back in the wire then stumbled over to Lerina and tried to lift the giant wall of rubble off of her. "How did yah get into this mess?" He asked in an amused but relieved tone while shaking his head. Lerina could not tell if he was smiling or not behind his helmet, but his tone caused her to imagine one on his face. The wall was heavy, and even An'kin couldn't lift it by himself.

"Well…" She started to explain embarrassed, "I wanted to explore a little. Found my way here and decided to take a breather on this statue on the second floor." She put her hands on the rubble to try and help, but she guessed she wasn't doing much. She grunted with effort. "When I closed my eyes I could see the compound. It don't know if I was asleep or what… but in my dream, I saw the construction and I saw one of the beams fall. Weird dream huh?" She paused. "Well then next thing I knew there was a large crack sound and the floor beneath me crumbled. I'm surprised I wasn't killed!"

"Yeah, you are lucky. This was a long fall! How did you not get hurt more than you are?" He said trying to find a way to lift the rubble off of her.

"I… I don't know. I kinda blacked out when the floor caved in. Next thing I know I'm waking up under this wall not being able to see anything." Tears of relief fell down her cheeks. If they hadn't been here, she probably would not have a chance to make it out alive. "Thank you for finding me! I thought I was going to die!" Note to self, don't go exploring ruins ever. Again. She thought to herself.

"Shhh. It's ok I'm here now. Calm down and let's see if we can get you out of here." An'kin told her in a hushed reassuring tone. He paced around the rubble that had her trapped. A low rumble came from the tunnel behind them. An'kin shot up and pointed his flashlight down the tunnel. The tunnel was wide and dark. The sound seemed to be getting closer.

Lerina's eyes widened. "What is that?" She said frightened.

"Lerina… ok let's go! You have to use the Force! Help me lift this off of you!" His voice was more rushed and anxious than before.

"But, But I can't!" The last thing she wanted was to trap everyone here.

"Yes you can! If you don't you very likely may become paste in the next 10 seconds!" An'kin slid down and tried as hard as he could to lift the wreckage off of her. Then, a loud roar resounded closer than before. An'kin looked up as he pointed the flashlight towards the sound.

Lerina tried to turn her head but could barely see it. But she could feel it. Something was there, and it was big. From what she could tell the creature had a set of brilliantly bright white eyes, shining teeth, and grey- green scaly skin. It eyed An'kin and flailed its slimy tongue. It looked deadly, and hungry. "What. Is. That?" Lerina asked.

"What's wrong!?" Kote shouted from up above. After he did the creature lunged for An'kin.

An'kin dropped the wall back onto Lerina to dodge the creature's razor sharp fangs. He pulled out his vibroblade. Lerina observed the creature's movements. It was slow and needed room to maneuver due to its size.

Lerina screamed in pain as the monster smashed against the wall beside her after An'kin dodged its lunge. The creature heard her scream and readied for a blow at her. It was just about to charge at her when An'kin ran into it, knocking the creature back down on its belly. They could see it a little better when his light flashed across it. It was about a meter tall, but it was long with four legs and a thick muscly hide. Lerina desperately tried to dig herself out once more, letting adrenaline pick up slack and help her ignore her wounds. An'kin drove his vibroblade into the animal's gut while it was still staggered, but it only made the creature more angry. The blade sunk into its skin and was swallowed up in its mass of flesh and scales. The animal jumped back up and came at An'kin. It had his arm locked in its strong jaws. Lucky for An'kin, his armor kept the beast's teeth from puncturing through. It swung An'kin across the tunnel smashing him against the opposite wall.

"What is going on down there!?" Kote yelled out from above. He felt so helpless. He heard Lerina's screaming and what sounded like the creature tearing An'kin apart. Tears filled his eyes with the thought that he may never see Lerina or An'kin again. Sounds of crashes and roars shot out of the hole, resonating through the building. It only took less than a moment to make his decision to climb down there but to him it felt like a lifetime. He had no cable so he would have to climb down slowly. If he made one error it might be the end of him. But he still had to try. "Guys please be ok!" Kote yelled down, even though it was for more of his reassurance. He heard Lerina scream again.

Back down in the hole the creature had An'kin pinned against the rubble. The added weight pushing down on Lerina started to crush her. An'kin was trying his best to fend the beast off, but it was a tough fight. The beast was trying to shake him and tear at him, but his armor wasn't letting up. He, however, was starting to get fatigued.

"Lerina!" He choked out. "You have to use the Force! If you want us to get out of this alive you have to try!"

Lerina closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. She had no idea how she was able to access the force all those other times, the only connection she knew was through her adrenaline. But now it seemed to be failing her. "I'm trying! I… I can't!" It couldn't be that she just didn't want to use it, all the other times it came as a shock and out of nowhere.

The monster finally released An'kin off the wreckage but flung him once again across the tunnel. The monster stood there panting and staring at An'kin. He struggled to lift himself up off the ground.

Lerina spotted a rock and chucked it full force. It only bounced off its head but she succeeded in grabbing its attention. It turned around towards Lerina. "Come get me you fat swine!" Lerina hopped An'kin would take the hint to get himself out of the hole. This was likely the only opening he was going to get and if it meant that she had to sacrifice herself so him and Kote could get out in one piece, it was ok with her. The creature growled and slowly slinked over Lerina baring his fangs with slobber dripping from its mouth. Lerina tried to back up as far as she could, but there wasn't much she could do. The monster reared back than went for a strike right at Lerina's head with mouth wide and teeth shining. Its breath smelled like bantha fodder. Lerina screamed as she thought this was it when a rush of air blew passed her face, and the monster let out a painful shriek. She looked up startled to see what had happened.

An'kin was on top of the monster with a blaster pistol to its head. The creature scrambled and tossed around trying to knock An'kin off of it, but he was steady. Lerina hated being so helpless. She wanted to tackle the monster herself and show it who was boss. Her thoughts were immediately brought to An'kin face. It was full of anger and awareness. She hadn't seen the look he had on his face ever since she witnessed him murder her parents all those years ago. It brought back painful and fearful memories. But now was not the time to dwell. There would be plenty of time for that later.

With a swift punch to the throat of the creature, An'kin stunned it enough to get off three clean shots to its head. Lerina watched as the creature finally fell limp on the ground. She sat there relieved and just started crying. Her stupidity had put everyone's life at risk, and that wasn't even counting the kell dragon. But, because of An'kin's strength, everything was calm again.

An'kin centered himself, slid off the creature, and dug his vibroblade out of its hide. He then quickly slid over to Lerina and held her in his arms as she wept. She was in disbelief and awe. The man, who had killed her parents for reasons beyond her knowing, had just saved her life with his courage.

A thud behind him startled her, and An'kin whipped around with is pistol ready.

"Woah! Woah! It's me!" Kote said reassuringly.

An'kin sighed in relief. "Where were you this whole time? Wasn't like I could have used your help or anything…" An'kin looked unamused.

Kote made an embarrassed glance at him. "I… I'm sorry. I had to slowly climb down the hole." Would have been here sooner if I had a cable. He thought to himself.

"Don't worry about it. Here help me lift this off Lerina."

Lerina was still sobbing a little bit but looked up to watch the two men finally lift the rubble off of her. She started to brush off what was left. Relief washed over her. The pressure the rubble caused had finally lifted off of her.

When she was free at last, Kote rushed over and hugged her. "Don't do that again! You had me worried sick!" His tone formed into a calm relieved one.

She blushed but slowly began to hug him back, keeping her palms off of him to prevent blood from staining his armor. Lerina resisted the urge to make a comical remark. She wanted to enjoy the moment. It was… nice.

"Alright love birds, we need to get out of here." An'kin jokingly remarked.

Kote turned around with a disapproving stare. He felt a duty to watch her back and wanted to hold true to it. If that made them love birds then so be it.

Lerina's attention shifted from Kote to the creature. "What was that thing?" Lerina squeaked out.

"That, that was a Kell Dragon. A juvenile by the looks of him. Last time I saw one of these was on Lok many years ago." He explained as he examined the beast.

"A… A juvenile?" Lerina replied nervously. Her eyes grew wide with realization. "Does that mean… there could be more? And bigger ones?"

An'kin shot her a curious look. "You're right. We need to hurry up. Come on." He said as he picked Lerina up in his arms. Lerina made sure not to touch his armor with her palms as well. Kote followed closely behind as they walked back to the opening of the hole. He reached around Kote's waist and shot his snare cable up the hole. He checked to make sure that the cord was taught.

"Alright, let's hope it holds this time." He said. And with that, he activated a button on his gauntlet, and the three of them shot up through the hole as the wire retracted back inside his gauntlet.

Lerina hoped the same. She didn't think she would be able to climb out of the hole, without assistance any way.

When they finally made it to the top, An'kin got everyone settled down. Kote went out to scout the outside while An'kin knelt down beside Lerina who was brushing herself off and wiping her tears. She looked up at him, her face covered in wet dirt and sticky blood.

"Look, Lerina." An'kin said. "I can't help you with this Force thing, and I think it is best that you stop trying to use it to avoid future problems like this, ok?"

Lerina nodded. As if I hadn't already thought of that. She thought to herself. Saying nothing in reply, she listened.

"I can train you, however."

Lerina looked up at him with curious eyes. She was weak and she didn't understand why he would want to waste time trying to train her.

"I think it's about time you start training to be a Mandalorian. You've grown to be a likable addition to our little organization considering your short time here. I think it's about time you start pulling some weight around here. What do ya' say?" He smiled. She paused for a moment. He just sat there patiently waiting for her reply.

He was giving her a second chance, just as she did for him. She was finally accepted somewhere. She was home. "I… I think I can do that." She finally affirmed.

"Good. Now let's get out of here, aye?" He picked her up and headed back to the compound with Kote following closely behind.

Lerina knew that this would be a major turning point in her life. She had come from a trouble making sneak on Nar Shaddaa to being embraced by a proud and honorable Mando'ad who decided to accept the challenge of training her in his ancestor's ways. Whether or not it was the right decision, she would have to discover later; but it felt perfect in her book.

Back at the compound An'kin stood her next to Kote. She favored her right leg.

"Kote, look after her alright? I expect to see both of you in the sparing circle outside the training rooms tomorrow morning! Seven o'clock sharp!" He gave them a playful but asserting grin.

"Yes sir!" Kote replied quickly. His duty was now made official. Look after her well-being. He watched An'kin stroll back to the construction site, no doubt to tell his wife what had happened. Kote looked at Lerina and gave her a sheepish smile.

She gave him a playful glare back and punched him in the arm. Lerina loved to tease him; sometimes it seemed to be the highlight of her day. His comments back always made the two laugh. "Let's go have some fun!" She said in excitement. It felt good to be home. It was a feeling she had not felt in what seemed like a lifetime.

Kote shook his head. She always wanted to stir up trouble even after she had just gotten out of it. He knew she wasn't going to make his new found responsibility easy. No, that would be too boring.


End file.
